Accidents at work

Table 1.1 Accidents at work in different industries in Switzerland, from the statistics of the Swiss National Accident Insurance (2005).

The British social security system has since been characterised by a two track system of benefits one contributoiy scheme for the insured and a parallel means tested scheme for those who exhaust or never attain entitlement. Contributory insurance benefits cover the traditional risks of unemployment, sickness, pregnancy, invalidity, industrial injuries (i.e. accidents at work) and occupational disease, old age and death. Currently they include contribution-based Jobseeker s Allowance (JSA), Incapacity Benefit (IB), Maternity Allowance, Industrial Injuries Benefits, and Old Age Pension. Entitlement to each of these benefits depends upon satisfying the relevant tests governing payment of NI contributions. 

The National Institute of Insurance gainst Accidents at Work Instituto Nazionaie per L Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro -INAIL)... 

National structure and institutions involved with setting OELs, Until recently there was no national committee/advisory board or other regulatory body established doling exclusively with the establishment of OELs. The only (historical) example of such a body existed in 1975, when the former ENPI Ente Nazionale Prevenzione Infortuni -National Agency for Prevention of Accidents at Work) issued a provisional list of recommended OELs, which was never approved at national level. ENPI was shut down in 1979, after the National Health Service was installed in 1978. 

The National Institute of Insurance against Accidents at Work Imtituto Nazionale per Operates under the authority of the Ministry of Labour, managing the mandatory insurance funds for occupational accidents and diseases. INAIL has regional and local offices aU over the coimtry. 

At its broadest level, there are three different bodies of research that have addressed new employees occupational accident rate. All three literatures clearly show that an employee is more likely to have an accident at work in their initial period of employment in a job. The larger two bodies of literature are those which have examined the relationship between job tenure and accidents, and the relationship between age and accidents. The age literature has tended to focus on young or youth worker, and these workers are often new employees (have relatively short job tenure), but this is not always the case. Generally, the research on the relationship between age and accidents has not attempted to disentangle the relationship between age and job tenure. Nevertheless, and despite some interpretation difficulties, I will examine this literature. Finally, there is a small literature which has looked at the relationship between employee turnover rates and accidents, which is also suggestive of safety issues associated with new employees. OveraU, it seems clear that new employees are a safety risk and may even be classified as a safety hazard. 

LTI-rate - lost time injury frequency rate is defined as the number of lost-time injuries per one million hours of work. A lost-time injury is an injury resulting from an accident at work, where the injured person does not return to work on the next shift (Kjell6n, 2000)... 

Taking medicines can affect peoples ability to work safely, as can the effects of alcohol. Abuse of drugs or substances such as solvents can also cause accidents at work. 

The basic aim of a risk assessment is to prevent accidents (Harms-Ringdahl 2001). In Estonia, the registered occupational accidents rate has been increased compared to 1998 - a survey (European Foimdation... 2007) shows, that the standardized index of serious and fatal accidents at work in 2004 appears 35.4% higher than the average EU value. The reasons for this outcome have not been studied in depth, therefore at this time imderstanding of their complex nature remains speculative however, in this paper, some attempts to... 

European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW) and commuting accidents Fatal accidents at work - incidence rate 2008b. Available online at http //epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/... 

European Statistics on accidents at work. 2001. Methodology. Available online at http //ec.europa.eu/employment social/ publications/2002/lm4202569 en.html (5.01.2009). 

So, there isn t, at this stage, any method that uses for risk analysis the large amount of data on accidents at work that are daily collected from national agencies. 

Indeed, data collected following ESAW (European Statistics on Accidents at Work) methodology are available, up-to-date, easy to find and to select by different variables that describe accidents so data are not generic but they can be chosen by specific parameters. 

As a matter of fact, data on accidents at work are the most coherent with the purpose of the new methodology RATE in fact is a quantitative method for SMEs that focuses its attention on OHS and risks for manpower. 

The purpose of the project is to harmonize the criteria and methodologies to be applied when recording data on accidents at work. 

ESAW methodology and the other efforts made from European Commission and EUROSTAT to collect data about accidents at work and occupational diseases appear nowadays underused. 

Besides new Italian law on safety, n.81/08, states that in the future, in SMEs with less than 50 workers, risk analysis could be made with procedures that have to be based on data about accidents at work. So once more the absence of a methodology based on this kind of data is a problem that RATE contributes to solve. 

Then there are other significant considerations about the use of data on accidents at work the pos-sibihty to select them by different variables allows to have specific data to analyze safety in particular conditions, for example during the night, or with specific kind of workers (workers without experience or on stage), or belonging to a specific geographical area. 

DG Employment and social affairs D5, EUROSTAT Unit E3, 2001. European Statistic on Accidents at Work (ESAW) Methodology. Doc. ESTAT/E3/HSW/2001/1130, European Commission, Brussels. 

In 1970, a Royal Commission was set up to look at the health and safety of employees at work. The findings concluded that the main cause of accidents at work was apathy on the part of both employers and employees. 

Despite new legislation, improved information, education and training, accidents at work do still happen. An accident may be defined as an uncontrolled event causing injury or damage to an individual or property. An accident can nearly always be avoided if correct procedures and methods of working are followed. Any accident which results in an absence from work for more than three days or causes a major injury or death is notifiable to the HSE. There are more than 40,000 accidents reported to the HSE each year which occur as a result of some building-related activity. To avoid having an accident you should ... 

The most common categories of risk and causes of accidents at work are ... 

RIDDOR stands for Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulation 1995, which is sometimes referred to as RIDDOR 95, or just RIDDOR for short. The HSE requires employers to report some work-related accidents or diseases so that they can identify where and how risks arise, investigate serious accidents and publish statistics and data to help reduce accidents at work. 

An accident at work resulting in an over-three-day injury (that is, an employee being absent from work for over three days as a result of an accident at work) requires that accident report form F2508 be sent to the Local Authority within 10 days. 

In addition to the deaths, about 28,000 people have major accidents at work and about 130,000 people each year receive minor work-related injuries which keep them off work for more than three days. 

Every year thousands of people have accidents at their place of work despite the legal requirements laid down by the Health and Safety Executive. Many people recover quickly but an accident at work can result in permanent harm or even death. 

Slips, trips and falls are the most common causes of accidents at work. What can you do at work to reduce the possibility of an accident being caused by a slip, trip or fall ... 

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