The workers who everybody sees through have never been more neglected. True, the reduction in construction volume has also reduced the annual number of fatalities, but that's no consolation.
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They say every cloud has a silver lining. Looking for the bright side of the coronavirus crisis, we can at least cite the decrease in the number of victims of fatal accidents at construction sites. The pandemic and the lockdowns reduced the number of fatalities in 2020 – undoubtedly a positive development.
31 workers were killed last year in the construction sector, compared to 40 in the previous year. The central cause of fatalities continues to fall from heights.
All sectors of the Israeli economy have seen a decrease in the number of accidents compared to 2019 and 2018. In 2020, a total of 57 workers were killed in work-related accidents, compared to 84 in 2019 and 70 in 2018.
The Labor Ministry has ramped up its enforcement efforts, reporting the closure of nearly 3,000 construction sites in the past year due to safety issues that carry a risk of death – almost twice the number of closures in 2019.
A report published by the ministry's Occupational Safety Administration shows that the number of safety orders issued to hazardous construction sites increased from 2,501 in 2019 to 5,532 in 2020. The number of inspections of construction sites rose by 47%, from 8,331 in 2019 to 12,250 in 2020.
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Hopefully, in 2021 construction work will resume at full capacity, while the number of fatalities and serious injuries will continue to fall. Yet hope is not enough – the authorities involved should take responsibility, once and for all, for solving this problem and invest the resources needed to improve worker safety.
It seems that with new elections coming up and the coronavirus crisis still with us, the issue may continue to suffer from neglect.
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