More than four and three quarter million accidents at work resulting in over three days' absence take place a year in the European Union, with some 146 million work days lost, according to official figures recently released by Eurostat.
According to its report on workplace safety, Accidents at Work in the EU in 1996, Eurostat says there were 4,757,611 accidents at work in the EU in 1996. Despite the millions injured, this represents an improvement on accident statistics in 1994 when 4,918 066 are estimated to have been injured.
Moreover, the results relate only to 88 per cent of people in employment in the EU, i.e., 131.5 million, so the true figure of workplace accidents could be higher. As many as 4,229 people per 100,000 of this population suffered workplace injuries resulting in their absence from work for more than three days. This represents some improvement on the 4,539 per 100,000 in this category in 1994.
No fewer than 5,549 people were killed at work in the EU in 1996. The vast majority of fatalities (5,124) were male, while 315 female workers lost their lives. Gender was not specified in a further 110 fatalities.
Some 1,349 fatalities were within the construction industry, while 1,128 people died in manufacturing industries. The next most dangerous category was transport, storage and communication where 841 died at work. As many as 676 people involved in agriculture, hunting and forestry died in the workplace. Some 486 workers in the wholesale and retail trade and the repair of motor vehicles and personal and household goods were killed while working.
Sixty-seven people died earning their living within the electricity, gas and water supply industries, while 53 hotel and restaurant workers were fatally injured at work.
Workers in companies with fewer than 50 employees and the self-employed are more likely to be injured at work, says the report. Moreover, the youngest (18-24 age group) and the oldest (55-64) have a greater risk of having an accident at work.
Almost half (48 per cent) of those absent from work due to a workplace injury longer than three days were absent for between two weeks and three months, demonstrating the high socio-economic impact of workplace injuries. Moreover, 5 per cent of workers who were absent for more than three days due to a workplace injury were absent for three months or more, including people whose workplace injury resulted in partial or total disability. Forty seven per cent of injured workers absent for more than three days returned to work within two weeks or the injury.
Eurostat estimates that 146 million workdays were lost in the EU (including Norway) in 1996. That gives a mean of 30 days lost per accident or the equivalent of one day of work lost per year for every person in employment.
Commenting on the report, Mr Robert Roe, senior inspector with the Health and Safety Authority, says that while the Eurostat report suggests Ireland offers relatively safe workplaces in comparison with several other EU countries, this could be due to different ways of recording accidents in different countries.
"In Ireland and the UK, accident rates are derived from Labour Force Surveys, whereas in a lot of the rest of Europe, it's derived from the National Insurance system. The figures which are derived from the National Insurance system always seem to show a much, much higher accident rate.
"The Irish figures are presented as deriving from the accidents reported to the HSA. They are initially calculated on the basis of the accidents reported to the Health and Safety Authority. But - now this is the big but - as you know only a proportion, between 30 and 40 per cent are reported to the Health and Safety Authority.
"So Eurostat ask us for an estimate of the under-reporting rate which we supply to them and then they correct the figures, which brings them back to exactly the same figures as the Labour Force Survey because we use the Labour Force Survey to estimate the under-reporting rate. Although they are presented as being based on reported accidents, they are actually Labour Force Survey accidents or, as it's now called, the National Quarterly Household Survey (but in 1996 it was still called the Labour Force Survey)."
The Eurostat figures exclude the public sector and Ireland has a relatively large public sector. Eurostat is trying to gather standardised figures that would be applicable across Europe. But it will take some years before the improved standardisation in data collection bears fruition.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
