Statistics highlight gender aspect of workplace accidents

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Official figures on workplace accidents in Italy in 2001 were published in summer 2002. A noteworthy feature to emerge from the statistics is that men have many more accidents at work than women. In part this is due to men's higher labour market participation - and indeed the number of accidents involving women is rising as they enter the the workforce in greater numbers. However, some of the disparity between men and women may result from gender-based occupational segregation.

In July 2002, the National Workplace Accident Insurance Institute (Istituto Nazionale per l'Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro, Inail) issued a report on workplace accidents in Italy during 2001. This is an important document because it provides detailed analysis of the phenomenon, while also furnishing a large amount of quantitative data on the accidents reported.

Accidents in 2001

During 2001, there was a total of 1,029,925 accidents at work and 1,452 fatal accidents in Italy, which was a slight increase on 2000: 6,000 more accidents (up 0.6%) and 40 more fatalities (up 2.1%). However, the workplace accident rate tends to reflect the employment rate, which increased in 2001. The amount of accidents also varies according to the sector. Overall, the workplace accident rate, calculated as the number of accidents reported per 1,000 employees, is high in agriculture (76.16) and somewhat lower in industry and services (44.61). This pattern is also seen for fatal accidents, the incidence of which is higher in agriculture (0.156) than in industry and services (0.062). Compared with 2000, there was a fall in agriculture in 2001 (down 6.5% for all accidents and 4.7% for fatalities), but an increase in industry and services (up 1.2% for all accidents and 3.1% for fatalities).

The workplace accident rate also differs according to geographical area: during 2001, the highest increase of workplace accidents in industry and services was recorded in the South (up 2.7%) and the Islands (Sardinia and Sicily) (3.3%), followed by the Centre (1.8%), the North-West (1.5%) and the North-East (0.2%). By contrast, agricultural accidents decreased in all areas of the country, albeit to different extents (with the fall ranging from 8.6% in the South to 4.4% in the Islands).

The Inail report also analyses trends in workplace accidents between 1951 and 2001, which once again differ between industry and services, on the one hand, and agriculture on the other. In industry, a accidents began to decline substantially in the 1970s, a trend which can be attributed to various factors, including: changes in the occupational structure with the shift from industry to tertiary activities; technological innovation and organisational changes at company level; and trade union demands during the 1970s for improvements in workplace safety. The dynamic has been different in agriculture, where an increase in the accident rate has been accompanied by a fall in employment. This has been due at least in part to the introduction of machinery and equipment which increases the risk of accidents. According to Inail, the spread of 'irregular' labour has also heightened exposure to risk in agriculture.

Gender aspects

The Inail report shows that gender is a major differentiating variable as regards workplace accidents. During 2001, accidents were significantly more common among men than among women: the former accounted for around 784,000 accidents (76% of the total) and the latter for 250,000 (24%). Compared with 2000, whilst the male accident rate remained substantially stable (up 0.1%), the female rate increased by 5.4%.

From the sectoral point of view, accidents among women were particularly common in the civil service, where they accounted for 57.6% of the total, compared with 25.2% in agriculture and 22.6% in industry and services. Consequently, agriculture, industry and services are the sectors in which the majority of accident victims are males. In geographical terms, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Veneto - regions in the North and Centre - were the regions with the highest levels of accidents involving women. As regards age, among both men and women those most likely to be accident victims belong to the under-34 and 35-49 age groups in industry and services, and to the 50-64 age group in agriculture. However, in industry and services, women recorded a substantial increase in accidents in 2001 among the 50-64 age group (up 11.1%) and the 35-49 group ( 8.9%), while among men the increases were 1.4% and 2.5% respectively.

Commentary

Analysis of workplace accidents on the basis of gender enables more general conclusions to be drawn concerning the Italian labour market.

The difference in the workplace accident rate according to gender is at least partly due to the different quantitative presence of women in the labour market. For example, the increasing level of accidents involving women compared with the male rate, which is substantially stable, is due to the fact that female labour market participation is increasing in Italy. Moreover, the high number of accidents among women in the regions of the North can be explained by the higher female employment rate in those areas compared with the South. The amount of accidents in the public sector, which has particularly high levels of female employment, is significant.

However, the disparity between men and women in terms of their accident rates is too wide to be due solely to the lower female presence in the labour market. Also important may be factors to do with the job tasks performed. Several studies have shown that the Italian labour market continues to display gender-based occupational segregation. The figures on workplace accidents suggest that women tend to be employed in jobs where the risk of accidents is lower. (Marco Trentini, Ires Lombardia)