Go to work and never go home. Die at work. Contrary to other labor market indicators that are improving, this scourge that hits hundreds of households every year worsened in the last year. At least 796 people died in 2024 in accidents at work, 75 people more than a year earlier. The data will foreseeably increase in the coming months, with the publication of the final data.
The Ministry of Labor has published on Thursday the provisional data of accidents at work until December. Of the 796 fatalities, most of them died during his day, 646 people. In addition, there were 150 deaths when going or returning from work, which is called work accidents ‘in itinere’.
Actually, it is just the tip of the iceberg of deaths motivated by work. A study by the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated in just 11% of the deaths that are due to accidents, with many more invisible deaths due to occupational diseases, contracted by work.
Most of the occupational accident victims were salaried, 730 people, while another 66 were self -employed workers. As happens every year, fatal accidents mainly reach men (608), while 38 victims were women.
To see the evolution of this problem taking into account the changes in the employment level, the incidence data is usually consulted – how many deaths are for every 100,000 workers -, which also records an increase in deaths in 2024.
In addition, in CCOO they remember that the final data will be worse. “It must be remembered that the definition of the fatal accident includes the deaths that occur in the 12 months after the incident, so when consolidated data is available, the deaths due to work accident will shoot well above 800,” he says The union.
The unions claim visibility and a reflection on these figures after which there are people, households and families shattered every year. Many times for causes avoidable with adequate prevention.
In total, there were 628,300 work accidents with a decrease in 2024, 0.5% more than the previous year in gross terms. Although, if the incidence index is attended, for every 100,000 workers, a 2.3%reduction is noticed.
More deaths in “prevention” accidents
The majority unions, CCOO and UGT show their concern about the increase in deaths. “The strong increase in mortal accidents is warning us that the structural problems of prevention in Spain still do not solve,” they warn in CCOO.
Specifically, there is a significant increase in deaths from “avoidable life prevention”, criticizes Mariano Sanz, head of Occupational Health of CCOO. These are the deaths of “shock or blow against a moving object, collision with”, which doubled: there were 46 victims in 2024, compared to 22 of a year earlier. Deaths also increase for “being trapped, being crushed, suffering an amputation”, often accidents with machinery, for which there should be a formation and prevention in its use that prevents the claims, Sanz underlines.
As every year, much of the recorded deaths are those called “for natural causes.” The “infarcts, brain spills and other strictly natural causes”, which took the lives of 266 people while working. Trade unions call attention to risks such as stress and anxiety, related to work, which they consider that they are also behind these deaths in many cases. They are the so -called “psychosocial risks”, which “are not measured in most companies,” says Mariano Sanz.
The incidence rates of fatal accidents grow 8.6%, and by sectors the rebound in the industry (with 18.8%), followed by services (12.7%) and by construction with construction with construction with 1.2%.
“The quality of risk prevention in companies descended from the economic crisis and has not yet been recovered. And it is not going to recover as long as deep changes are addressed in preventive legislation to update it to the current reality of labor relations, ”they indicate in CCOO. This is one of the issues addressed at the Social Dialogue Board opened by the Ministry of Labor and that the unions consider that it is “very slow.”
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