The greatest trade union confederation in Italy has announced that it will join the lawsuit against the owner of a fifth accused of murdering an Indian migrant worker who bleed up until death in June last year.
The Italian Generale Confederazione del Loro (CGIL) will join the process as a civil plaintiff, according to Secretary General Maurizio Landini.
Satam Singh, 31, was mortally injured when he worked with heavy machinery in a Latin vegetable field, an agricultural province south of Rome. The owner of Thursday, Antonello Lovato, 39, did not call an ambulance after Singh had a cut in his arm.
Lovato is accused of leaving Singh while being injured and bleeding. Prosecutors initially considered accusing the homicide of negligence, but increased the accusation of intentional murder, arguing that Lovato was aware that the actions he practiced could cause death.
The trial is expected to extend to May. In Tuesday’s opening session, Lovato said “he lost his head” when he found Singh, who worked illegally in the country, with injuries.
“I wasn’t in myself. I didn’t want me to die,” he said, according to the Ansa news agency.
The Italian Labor Minister, Marina Calderone, classified the death of Singh as an “act of barbarism.” Since then, the Ministry of Labor has promised to take new measures against labor exploration, including the fight against the illegal employment system that operates in Italy, known as “Caporalate”.
Manifestations abroad of the Court
Outside the court, dozens of trade unionists have demonstrated against the migrant work system paid in the Italian agricultural sector.
“I think what happened was evident to everyone,” Landini told the crowd.
“Like the exploration logic known as ‘Caporalate’, which allows people to be treated as basic products, such as parts of a machine that can be easily purchased and sell at the lowest price. And it insists that it is this culture that should be changed.”
“We believe it is important to seek justice, especially to put everything you need to change the way of doing business so that episodes like this are not repeated,” Landini said.
“We do not believe that this is an isolated case. It is a mistake to think that this problem can be solved with this trial. We are worried because time is starting again.”
The exploitation of migrant agricultural workers is a problem that has been happening in Italy for a long time. In another case last July, the Italian police announced that they had published dozens of Indian agricultural workers of the working conditions of slavery in northern Italy.
Supposedly, the workers were forced to work more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week, receiving only a thin salary that was then used to pay debts to their alleged bosses.
