The nineteen companies are all subcontractors. And the number is not unusually high on building sites.
Jessica Löfström is the founder of Ansvar Säkerhet and has investigated occupational safety crime in the construction industry. She points to the number of subcontractors as the main reason for poorer workplace safety.
– I am not surprised. The working environment is so bad today that it's a wonder there aren't more accidents.
There are several reasons for this, says Löfström. When many different companies are involved, responsibility for a safe work environment is rarely taken by any of them. Neither systematic work environment measures nor risk inventories are made.
– When these things aren't in place, accidents happen. And that's what happens when you have a lot of links. It's very important, but that's the way a construction site is set up today.
Black market labor
For a subcontractor, there's also an increased willingness to use black market labor, where wages have plummeted over the past decade to just a few tens of kroner per hour.
– We see more and more illegals working, and then the risks increase even more.
People who work on the black market are also often in Sweden illegally and tend to stay away from the authorities. So reporting environmental crimes or unsafe working conditions is unthinkable for them.
– They don't do it because they know they can't be seen or heard. This whole increase in the number of people working illegally here significantly increases the risk of accidents.
Strict sanctions
To significantly reduce the number of accidents, Löfström says several measures are needed.
Today, a company that has cheated on staffing can be forced to pay a penalty of 20,000 or 25,000 kronor, says Löfström.
– These are incredibly small fines when you consider that an illegal earns 40 kronor an hour. It's less than coffee money for the company to pay these fines. The fines need to increase significantly; it must hurt to do wrong.
She believes that fines should instead be based on the company's turnover. She also believes that companies caught using illegal labor should be banned from public contracts.
– I can guarantee you that if there was a risk of being excluded from future procurements for, let's say, five years, there would be a reduction of offences, she said.
– No one would risk losing the chance to share in that 900 billion kronor every year.
May violate the law
According to the law, personnel on construction sites must be registered in a so-called personnel ledger, which should be updated daily. Most construction companies have an electronic identification system, ID06, where one logs in with a card.
Two of the five people who died in the hoist accident were not registered in the system. According to Patrik Toresäter, CEO of the main contractor, Andersson, these two were newly hired by a subcontractor and had not yet received their ID06 cards.
– Instead, they had to identify themselves with passports and make sure the passports were available while they waited for their ID06 cards to be delivered. Although the new employees were not properly registered, we still had good control over who was on the site, he writes in an email.
But that's against the law, says Löfström.
– It's a violation of tax procedure law if they weren't registered. If they had their passport details, why didn't they put them in the personnel ledger? It's the law that you have to do that, says Löfström and continues:
– And yes, it takes a few days to get the plastic card, but you can still log in, immediately after you apply.