Switzerland

Organization responsible for the statistics

Service de la centralisation de l'assurance accidents LAA (SSAA) (Centralised accident insurance service).

Periodicity

Annual.

Source

Accident compensation claims submitted to the LAA.

Objectives and users

Major users:

Insurance providers, the Federal Commission for the Coordination of Work Safety, the Medical Fees Commission, the Federal Office of Industry, Arts, Trade and Labour, the Swiss Bureau of Accident Prevention, the federal offices of social insurance and statistics, enterprises, schools and private individuals.

Coverage

Persons:

All insured persons. It is obligatory for all workers employed in Switzerland (including frontier workers) to be insured. The following are included: home workers, apprentices, trainees, volunteer workers, and workers in trade schools or sheltered workshops.

Self-employed workers are not required to have insurance, and consequently are not included in the statistics.

In 1995, 3,228,000 full-time paid employees were insured (estimate based on total wages subject to Occupational Accident Insurance (AAP) premiums and the average wages of persons injured in accidents).

Economic activities:

All economic activities and sectors.

Geographic areas:

The whole country.

The LAA accident insurance is obligatory for Swiss and foreign enterprises exercising an activity in the country.

Establishments:

All types and sizes of establishments.

Types of occupational accidents covered

Compensated injuries, including occupational diseases, due to all types of occupational accidents.

Concepts and definitions

Information not available.

Minimum period of absence from work: three days.

Maximum period for death to be considered a fatal occupational injury: death due to an accident occurring in the same year.

Types of information compiled

(a) personal characteristics of persons injured: sex, age, nationality;

(b) amount of worktime lost: not applicable;

(c) characteristics of accidents: type of accident; agency responsible for the accident;

(d) characteristics of injuries: fatal or non-fatal injury;

(e) characteristics of employers or workplaces: economic activity; canton.

Measurement of worktime lost

Not applicable.

Classifications

(a) fatal or non-fatal accidents;

(b) extent of disability:

groups of 5 per cent, ranging from 0-4 per cent to 100 per cent;

(c) economic activity:

according to the 1985 general classification of economic activities of the Federal office of social insurance (OFAS): agriculture; production (food products, drink and tobacco; textiles, wearing apparel, plastic products; wood, furniture; paper, graphic arts; chemical industry; metallurgy, watchmaking; machine industry; construction industry; stones, energy, water, other); services (trade; banking, insurance, real estate; travel, transport, storage; communications; hotels and restaurants; public administration; education, research, cultural activities; health services; consultation, representation of interests; consumer goods repairs; other service activities); non classifiable;

(d) occupation:

information not available;

(e) type of injury:

information not available;

(f) cause of accident:

most frequent combination of type and agency of accident: struck by fragments, shavings, dust; punctured, cut or scraped by hand tools and auxiliary equipment; skidding, slipping, tripping, falling, stumbling, stumbling without any object being involved in the accident; skidding, slipping, tripping, falling, stumbling, stumbling on staircase, on steps, on ascents; bit by animals, hit or stung;

(g) duration of absence from work:

not applicable;

(h) characteristics of workers:

age (20 or younger, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35, 36-40, 41-45, 46-50, 51-55, 56-60, 61-65, over 65); nationality (Swiss; foreigners, out of which foreign nationals of bordering countries, i.e. Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, France, and other foreigners);

(i) characteristics of accidents:

type of accident: slipping, skidding, stumbling; falls of persons on the same level, falls of persons from heights or into depths; skidding, slipping, falling, overturning objects; caught, caught under an object, hooked on an object; wedged, crushed; hit or buried by a mass; striking against, touching or hit by objects; hit or crushed by means of transport or cargo-handling equipment; punctured, cut, scratched, scraped; overexertion (weight, noise, vibration); contact with harmful substances; rupture, collapse of buildings, installations; bursts, ignitions, explosions; contact with electrical current; other types of accidents; insufficient information, unclassifiable activities;

agency related to accident: individual objects, spare parts; fragments, shavings, dusts; constructions and scaffoldings; stairs, ascents, ladders; scaffolding, coffering, walls; production and operation technique; grinders and drills; power saws, cutters; assembling machines; tools and equipment; means of transport, motor vehicles; automobiles, trucks, buses, tractors; harmful substances; human beings, animals; other objects related to the accident;

activity at the time of accident: engaged in typical production process: manual work only, manual work with hand tools, work involving mechanical installation, unspecified; work preparation: emergency repairs during production process, enterprise machine maintenance and installation; packing, unpacking, filling, loading, unloading, lifting, moving, stacking, etc.: with hand devices, with cargo-handling gear, driving and handling means of transport, moving, pushing, pulling manual vehicles, trolleys accompanied by other persons and transportation, parking, driving means of transport and cargo-handling automobiles; standing, walking, entering, exiting, descending or jumping with no other simultaneous activity; cleaning premises, passageways, localities; enjoying oneself, teasing, rough-housing, quarrelling, sport; participation in road traffic (outside the confines of the enterprise): means of transport used: bicycle, moped, light motorcycle, scooter, motorcycle, automobile, no vehicle (pedestrian), other vehicles; other occupational activities; on the way to and from the workplace; lack of information; unclassifiable activities;

(j) characteristics of employers or workplaces:

not available.

(k) insurance group:

National Swiss Insurance Fund (SUVA), private insurance institutions, recognized sickness insurance funds, public accident insurance funds, auxiliary fund;

Crossclassifications:

none.

Reference period

Year.

The statistics refer to new cases of occupational injuries registered during the period (year) of reference, i.e. the year of acceptance.

Estimates

Totals.

Rates of occupational accidents.

Historical background of the series

Documentation

Series available:

The following tables are published:

New cases of occupational accidents registered according to:

Bibliographic references:

The data are published in:

Commission des statistiques de l'assurance-accidents LAA (CSSA): Statistique de poche LAA (annual).

idem: Statistique des accidents des travailleurs en Suisse (annual).

Office fédéral de la statistique: Annuaire statistique de la Suisse (annual).

Data published by ILO:

The following data are furnished regularly to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, relating to compensated occupational injuries (including occupational diseases) according to major divisions of economic activity: number of persons fatally injured; number of persons injured with lost workdays; total of these two groups; rates of fatal injuries. The number of persons at risk (estimated total of insured full-time paid employees) is also supplied and stored in the LABORSTA database.

Confidentiality:

not available.

International standards

Not available.

Method of data collection

Legislation:

Act of 1 January 1984 on LAA accident insurance, including the OLAA, which is the ordinance on accident insurance statistics (OSAA), slightly modified in 1986, 1989 and 1991.

Reporting:

Workers having sustained an occupational accident or disease or the enterprise in which they work report occupational accidents and diseases, as well as non-occupational accidents, to their insurance provider by means of a standard form. The insurance providers transmit data concerning all accidents included in the statistics in computerized form to the SSAA data-processing department. They also send the SSAA the entire accident file or excerpts of all occupational diseases and of annuity cases, as well as a sample of 10 per cent of the other cases.

Data reported:

not available.

Changes planned:

not available.