Latvia

Organization responsible for the statistics

Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (CSB).

Periodicity

Annual.

Source

Survey questionnaires concerning occupational injuries completed by employers and submitted to the CSB.

Objectives and users

To provide information needed to eliminate the causes of work accidents and to improve conditions of work.

Major users:

Government institutions and insurance companies.

Coverage

Workers:

All adult persons employed, whether full- or part-time workers.

Enterprises with about 694,000 employees provide information each year.

Economic activities:

All economic activities and sectors.

Geographic areas:

Whole country.

Persons working outside the country and persons normally resident outside the country are not covered by the statistics.

Establishments:

All central and local government institutions and other establishments with 20 or more employees, or with output valued at more than 200,000 lats in the previous year.

Types of occupational accidents covered

The statistics cover reported injuries due to all types of occupational accidents.

Occupational diseases are also covered, but the data are compiled and published separately.

Commuting accidents are not included.

Concepts and definitions

Occupational accident:

Harm inflicted on the health of a person or death if caused by an extraordinary event during a working day (shift) which occurred while performing professional duties or during an action taken to save another person or property and to avert the impending danger to them.

Occupational injury:

A disease typical of selected groups of employees, caused by physical, chemical, hygienic, biological and psychological factors at the workplace.

Minimum period of absence from work: one day.

Maximum period for death to be considered a fatal occupational injury: none.

Types of information compiled

(a) personal characteristics of workers injured: not available;

(b) amount of worktime lost: work days not worked;

(c) characteristics of accidents: not available;

(d) characteristics of injuries: not available;

(e) characteristics of employers or workplaces: employment size, employer location, economic activity, total number of occupational accidents.

Measurement of worktime lost

Work time lost is measured in workdays.

Temporary absences (e.g. less than one day) for medical treatment are not included.

Classifications

(a) fatal or non-fatal accidents;

(b) extent of disability:

none;

(c) economic activity;

(d) occupation:

none;

(e) type of injury:

none;

(f) cause of accident:

none;

(g) duration of absence from work;

(h) characteristics of workers:

none;

(i) characteristics of accidents:

none;

(j) characteristics of employers or workplaces:

none.

Crossclassifications:

none.

Reference period

Year.

Estimates

Totals

Percentage distribution.

Rates of fatal and non fatal injuries.

Historical background of the series

The statistics were first compiled in the early 1980s.

In 1993, sampling methods were first applied.

Documentation

Series available:

The following summary tables are published:

Annual series on:

Bibliographic references:

The data are published in:

Latvijas Republikas Central statistikas parvalde (Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia): Latvijas Statistikas Gadagramata (Statistical Yearbook of Latvia).

All data are published, and can be provided on diskette.

Data published by ILO:

The following data are furnished regularly to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, relating to reported injuries according to economic activity: number of persons fatally injured, number of persons injured with lost workdays, total of these two groups; number of workdays lost by persons injured with lost workdays.

Confidentiality:

There are no restrictions on the publication or release of data.

International standards

The international statistical standards were taken into account when the methods used for collecting and compiling the statistics were designed.

Method of data collection

Type of survey:

Survey of establishments.

Data collected:

Information is collected only about the number of occupational accidents and persons injured.

Universe of the survey:

The survey universe is the business register, covering all active enterprises. It is updated once a year.

Sampling:

The sampling unit is the enterprise. All large enterprises with 20 or more employees as well as smaller ones with turnover of 200,000 Lats or more in the previous year are included in the sample; there are about 6,000 of these. Sampling methods are used for all the other enterprises, using single stage stratified random sampling. Region and code of economic activity (using the NACE classification) stratify sampling units. There are 400 strata in total. The population of smaller enterprises consists of about 29,000 units, and the sampling fraction varies between 5 per cent (for strata with more than 2,000 units) to 100 per cent (for strata with less than 4 units). The sample is rotated within each stratum: where the sampling fraction is 66 per cent or lower: approximately 50 per cent of the units from the old sample are replaced by new ones, so that each enterprise is in the sample for two years; where the sampling fraction is above 66 per cent, the enterprises remain longer in the sample. Non-responding units are not replaced.

Estimates:

Totals, means, percentages and ratios are estimated for the whole population and its components, using Horvitz-Thompson type estimators.

Within each stratum, the individual weighting coefficient of a sampled unit is calculated as the ratio of the total number of enterprises (at the time of sampling) to the total number of responding enterprises in the stratum.

Field work:

The reference period for data collection is one year. The employer completes a questionnaire, which is mailed to survey units, and returned to the CSB by mail.

Data processing:

The data are processed by computer.

Reliability of the estimates:

The estimated sampling error in 1997 was 0.3 per cent for the total number of employees and 0.2 per cent for total turnover. In 1997, two independent samples of small enterprises outside Riga were selected using different stratification. One of the objectives was to estimate sampling errors, since many enterprises may have changed stratum due to changes in economic activity.

In the last survey, the overall non-response level was about 5 per cent, varying according to administrative territory; the highest non-response is for Riga (10 per cent).

There may be some bias in the survey results due to measurement errors.

Changes planned:

None.

Additional information

Notification system:

Monthly statistics on reported occupational injuries are also compiled and published each quarter by the State Labour Inspection (SLI). The SLI deals mainly with serious occupational injuries and accidents involving groups of workers.

According to the Law on Labour Protection of the Republic of Latvia and Regulation No. 152 of the Cabinet of Ministers Investigation and recording of work accidents, all occupational injuries involving a loss of work capacity for more than 24 hours should be notified by the employer to the SLI and the police. A standard form is used for this purpose.

The official form provides the following information:

  1. information about the person injured: name, place of birth, age, sex, occupation;
  2. information about the employer and workplace;
  3. information about the accident: description, time and place of accident, number of casualties.
The current law on labour protection is under review; the reporting system may therefore change in the near future.

The information compiled by the SLI is published in the Annual Report of the SLI.