Increase in workplace accident risk among women

After a period of steady decline, the risk of suffering a serious occupational injury has started to increase in Sweden. The increase appears to be due to a higher number of injuries among women who work in the health care sector, many caused by falls. The increase in this type of injury may be partly attributable to two successive winters with severe snowfall. The figures, presented in the annual report of insurance firm AFA, show that the average risk for men has not increased.

Background

Compred with international figures, the risk of suffering a serious occupational injury is low in Sweden. A report from AFA Insurance, Serious Injuries and Prolonged Sick Leave in 2011 (in Swedish, 2.85Mb PDF), describes how workplace risk has been decreasing steadily over the past decade as structural changes in the labour market have led to a shift from higher to lower risk work. Structural transformation has been especially effective in reducing the risk of injury for men.

AFA’s yearly report focuses on serious occupational injuries and long-term occupational disease. AFA’s 2012 report (in Swedish, 3.29Mb PDF) reveals a change in the trend towards decreasing workplace risk. Between 2009 and 2010, the risk of suffering a serious injury at work increased from 1.8 to 2.1 per 1,000 employees – an increase of 17 %.

Mikael Normark, Manager of Analysis and Insurance Conditions at AFA Insurance, commented in June 2012 in a press article (in Swedish) that this trend of increasing numbers of accidents ‘appears to have continued throughout 2011’.

Injuries suffered by women

The figures show that more women are experiencing injuries at work, and the increase in accidents is mainly occurring within the female-dominated health care sector. In this sector, there has been a general increase in fall injuries, particularly falls from a level surface.

Fall injuries were the most common injuries across all sectors, but were most prevalent in the health care sector.

A typical fall injury was suffered by a home care service worker slipping outdoors on an icy pavement. The increase in this type of injury may be in part attributable to the snowy winters of 2009–10 and 2010–11. The figures show that the risk of falling, and of the fall resulting in injury, both increase with age.

A second major cause of injury for health care workers was during physical contact with patients, for example while engaged in heavy lifting and handling of patients or equipment, or as a result of violence inflicted on them by clients or other members of the public.

For men, the average risk has not changed. An increased risk within the male-dominated construction and metal industries, where machine and hand-held devices were common causes for injury, cancelled out a decrease in risk for police officers. While men were still over-represented in the statistics, their share has been steadily decreasing, and men now suffer 58 % of injuries reported at work.

About the report

The report was based on statistics from AFA Insurance’s database containing all reports of work-related injury and illness. It consisted of around ten million entries. The 2012 report analysed the data from 2010, and compared them with the findings for 2009. A serious occupational injury was defined as an injury with a recovery time of more than 30 days and/or which results in incapacity.

The organisation covers a major portion of all Swedish employees. More than four million people are covered by at least one type of AFA insurance. AFA is an umbrella organisation for the three insurance companies AFA Sickness Insurance (AFA Sjukförsäkring), AFA Work Injury Insurance (AFA Trygghetsförsäkring), and AFA Life Insurance (AFA Livförsäkring).

The organisation is owned jointly by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise (Svenskt Näringsliv), the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and the Council for Negotiation and Co-operation (PTK). They have given AFA Insurance a mandate to manage and administer insurances based on collective agreements and it does not pay any dividends to its shareholders.

Commentary

The health care sector is not affected to a significant degree by the structural transformation of the labour market in which high risk jobs – for example in manufacturing – are replaced by low risk white collar jobs. It is noteworthy that the broken trend of decreasing numbers of injuries shows a gendered structure, with the deterioration in conditions in the low wage, female-dominated health care sector having such significant impact on the national statistics.

Emilia Johansson and Hjalmar Eriksson, Oxford Research