(VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

A representative of the Ministry of Labor & Social Affairs stated Thursday that the number of persons killed in construction accidents increased by 30% in the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year. The ministry’s head of the safety, Erez Maimon, made the remarks during a special recess session of the Knesset Labor & Social Affairs Committee on the state of construction accidents.

“We completed the first half of 2018 with a 30 percent increase in the number of fatalities in a multi-year analysis,” Maimon said. The ministry has so far refrained from publicizing the figures of those killed in construction accidents.

Last month three construction workers were killed in various accidents on the same day. A 35-year-old worker was killed when he fell from a four-story scaffold in Moshav Ahisemak, and two construction workers were killed before they fell on a site at the Electra Construction site in Rosh Ha’ayin.

The head of the Labor, Welfare & Health Committee, Eli Alaluf, recently said in an interview with Ran Binyamini and Yigal Gueta of KAN Reshet Bet that the construction accidents stem from a multisystem failure. “All the systems are not interested in dealing with the problem thoroughly, whether it be the prosecutor’s office, the police, the contractors, or the Ministry of Labor & Construction.

“Every engineer can tell you what is going on there, you have to declare a state of emergency in the construction industry, you have to bring in all the relevant ministers, and not only will the supervision be effective, but also the punishment. One cannot approach a minister and be told ‘this is what it is’”.

The accompanying Hebrew video is from a KAN News report from August 2018 addressing the high rate of fatal accidents in the construction industry.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)