The workplace accident in Aspropyrgos, which claimed the life of one worker and left two others fighting for their lives in the ICU, has brought Greece’s longstanding workplace health and safety issues back into sharp focus. In the wake of the tragedy, Stavros Christidis — a member of the Board of the Western Attica Labor Center and Vice President of the Energy Sector Union — painted a deeply alarming picture of the country’s largest industrial zone in an interview with parapolitika.gr, pointing to inadequate inspections, understaffed agencies, and problems that, he argues, have gone unresolved for years.
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According to Christidis, Western Attica is home to oil refineries, manufacturing plants, ship repair facilities, large logistics operations, and storage facilities, with approximately 24 installations in the area falling under the European Seveso Directive. He stressed that in a region where between 130,000 and 140,000 people work, existing inspection mechanisms are simply not equipped to cover the full scale of industrial activity.
“There are not enough inspections. The Labor Inspectorate is understaffed and its role has been downgraded. We’re talking about thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of workers, with inspectors you can count on one hand,” he said.
Timeline of the Aspropyrgos tragedy
The fatal workplace accident in Aspropyrgos occurred on Thursday, July 9, at a business dealing in spare parts, scrap metal, and logistics, located at the corner of Megaridos and Chios streets in Aspropyrgos.
The 54-year-old worker, who had suffered burns covering approximately 90% of his body, passed away at KAT Hospital on the morning of Sunday, July 12. Despite the best efforts of medical staff, he succumbed to his injuries.
A total of eleven people were injured in the fire, with three workers sustaining the most severe burns. Following the death of the 54-year-old, two individuals remain in critical condition.
One is on a ventilator in the Burns Unit at KAT Hospital, suffering full-thickness burns to 75% of his body along with a serious inhalation injury, which has significantly complicated his clinical condition.
The second patient is on a ventilator in the Plastic Surgery and Burns Unit at Gennimatas General Hospital. According to reports, he has sustained third-degree burns covering more than 40% of his body.
“Many workplace accidents are never recorded”
Christidis argues that the true picture of workplace accidents and fatalities is far worse than what appears in official records. “Where there are unions, there is visibility. Where there aren’t, many incidents are never recorded at all,” he noted.
As a telling example, he cited the case of a worker in his early 30s employed by a contractor at one of the refineries, who reportedly suffered a heart attack while on the job. According to Christidis, the worker was on his sixth consecutive day of work, pulling twelve-hour shifts — yet the incident was classified as a medical episode rather than a workplace accident. “This is how a distorted picture of the real scale of the problem is created,” he said.
“This is not the first tragedy”
According to Christidis, Western Attica has been at the center of serious fatal workplace accidents on multiple occasions. Among the cases he cited was a deadly accident at the refineries in 2015 that killed four workers, as well as six worker deaths in the metalworking sector between 2018 and 2022. Similar incidents, he noted, have also occurred in the ship repair zone.
“We cannot keep counting bodies in the workplace. What is needed are meaningful inspections, a strengthened Labor Inspectorate, and the genuine enforcement of health and safety measures — before we mourn yet more victims,” Christidis concluded.
Strike action today, Thursday, July 16
In response to the deadly workplace accident in Aspropyrgos, the Eleusis–Western Attica Labor Center has called a 24-hour strike for today, Thursday, July 16, demanding a full investigation into the causes of the tragedy, accountability where responsibility is established, and a meaningful strengthening of workplace health and safety measures.
The strike rally is scheduled for 08:30 at the Aspropyrgos fountain square, while at 11:00 a delegation of trade union representatives will stage an intervention at the Ministry of Labor as part of a pre-arranged meeting with the Deputy Minister responsible.
Joining the action alongside the Eleusis–Western Attica Labor Center are the Western Attica Private and Commercial Employees’ Union, the Attica Metal and Shipbuilding Industry Syndicate, the “Agonistiko Metopo” workers’ front at ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum), the Eleusis–Mandra Professionals, Craftsmen and Traders Association, and the Eleusis Peace Committee.
In its official statement, the Labor Center cited serious deficiencies in the protection of workers’ health and safety, and also highlighted that, according to union sources, one of the critically injured workers had to be transferred from Thriasio Hospital to another facility because no Intensive Care Unit bed was available to treat his condition.
