Occupational accidents fall by 25% over five years

Ciutacu, Constantin

Overview

Article

Occupational accidents fall by 25% over five years

Published: 26 February 2012

Constantin Ciutacu

Health and well-being

Working conditions

Romania’s Labour Inspection Office (IM [1]) compiles an annual activity report [2], recording its inspections of industry, commerce and agriculture. The last chapter of this report concerns occupational accident statistics.[1] http://www.inspectmun.ro[2] http://www.inspectmun.ro/RAPORT%20ANUAL/raport%20anual.html

The latest activity report published by Romania’s Labour Inspection Office shows that the number of occupational accidents in 2010 fell by a quarter compared to 2006, and the number of fatal accidents dropped by 35.7%. Consequently the number of days’ work lost due to incapacity is also falling. Although the trend is downward across the economy, coal mining sector workers continue to be exposed to the highest level of risk, being 15 times more likely than other sectors to have an accident at work.

Annual survey

Romania’s Labour Inspection Office (IM) compiles an annual activity report, recording its inspections of industry, commerce and agriculture. The last chapter of this report concerns occupational accident statistics.

In 1973 Romania ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention no. 81/1947 on labour inspections in industry and commerce, and in 1975 it ratified Convention no. 129/1969 on labour inspections in agriculture.

According to Article 27 of Romanian Law No. 319/2006 (187Kb PDF) on health and safety at work, employers are obliged to report all occupational accidents to their local IM offices immediately after the event. The labour inspection office drew up its statistics on occupational accidents using data collected from these reports.

Downward trend in occupational accidents

The statistics for the period 2006–2010 indicate a strong decreasing tendency in the occurrence of work-related accidents, both in the total number of accidents and the rate at which they occur, per 1,000 employees, as shown in Table 1.

**Table 1: Number and rate of occupational accidents in 2006 and 2010**
	2006	2010	2010/2006 (%)
Total number of casualties	5,018	3,678	73.3
Frequency ratio*	0.85	0.79	93.9
Number of fatalities	423	272	64.3
Fatalities frequency ratio*	0.07	0.06	85.7

Note: * = Number of accidents per 1,000 employees

Source: IM 2010 Annual Report.

The decreasing rate of total accidents was consequently reflected in a lower number of working days lost due to temporary working incapacity (TWI). This figure dropped by 26% from 257,367 in 2006 to 191,144 in 2010.

The gravity index (total number of days off for TWI per 1,000 employees) fell accordingly, by 23% from 53.47 to 41.28 days.

Main sectors concerned

The three sectors that registered the highest number of accidents and the highest number of TWI days in 2010 were construction, coal mining and the food industry. Taken together, they account for about 25% of the total number of accidents, and for 26.7% of the total number of TWI days (see Table 2).

**Table 2: Top three economic sectors for work accidents, by number**
	2006		2010
	Number of casualties	Number of TWI days	Number of casualties	Number of TWI days
Construction	643	36,183	480	29,566
Coal mining	346	16,671	223	10,368
Food industry	205	9,963	201	11,180

Source: IM 2010 Annual Report.

The classification of economic sectors by frequency ratio reveals that coal mining workers have the highest degree of exposure to accidents. They are followed by workers in the construction sector and the automotive manufacturing industry, as shown in Table 3.

**Table 3: Top three economic sectors for work accidents, by frequency ratio**
	2006	2010
Coal mining	11.06	11.84
Construction	1.78	2.36
Automotive manufacturing industry	1.88	1.99

Source: IM 2010 Annual Report.

Accidents at work in the coal mining sector are 15 times higher than the national average, with 11.84 accidents for every 1,000 employees, compared to the national average of 0.79.

Commentary

Although the rate of work accidents has dropped consistently over the five-year period covered by the IM report, the coal mining sector continued to register the highest frequency of accidents in 2006 and 2010. This is one sector where the Labour Inspection office must concentrate its risk assessment and prevention controls.

When measured by degree of exposure to occupational accidents, underground miners come second after mechanical fitters and before unskilled workers in the construction sector.

Constantin Ciutacu, Institute of National Economy, Romanian Academy

Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.

Eurofound (2012), Occupational accidents fall by 25% over five years, article.