Fincantieri calls off launch after worker dies

John McLaughlin - Thursday 16 October 2008

FINCANTIERI has cancelled a launch ceremony for the Ruby Princess at its Monfalcone yard after a worker died in an accident on board the vessel on Wednesday evening. 

Safety agencies were still investigating the death of 43-year old Fincantieri supervisor Mauro Sorgo this afternoon, but early indications suggested he died during a pre-announced black out test. 

He seems to have tried to squeeze through a heavy watertight door that closed upon him. 

Around 2,000 workers at Monfalcone went on an eight-hour strike today in protest at the fatality and to call for improved workplace security at the yard. There were two-hour strikes at other Fincantieri yards across Italy. 

The death is the second at Monfalcone this year, after a welder working on a steel plate was run down by a yard truck in April. Workplace safety has become a highly sensitive issue in Italy over the last two years given the depressingly high toll of death and serious injury every year. 

Fincantieri immediately called off the launch ceremony scheduled for this Saturday, which Renato Schifani, president of Italy’s senate, was due to attend. The 116,000 gt Ruby Princess will now depart for Fort Lauderdale next Thursday for its christening before going into service in the Caribbean. 

In a statement, chief executive Giuseppe Bono expressed “my own concern and the deep sympathy of the entire company for the loss or our worker. Unfortunately, I cannot restore him to his family, but I can promise that we will take care of them.” 

Describing workplace safety as “a priority”, he also pledged stronger action “to prevent such accidents happening. We will create a pool of experts together with the unions and governing bodies in order to push through a major workplace safety programme covering everything from investment to training to communication”
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