Slovenia
Organization responsible for the statistics
Institute of Public Health of Republic of Slovenia is competent authority for statistics on Health and safety at work appointed from Statistical Office of Republic of Slovenia.
Periodicity
Yearly.
Source
Data are from two sources. Fatal accidents at work are from reported cases of accidents at work to health insurance, labour inspectorate, Institute of Public Health. Common notifications form is filled in by employer and certified by general practitioner.
Data for non fatal occupational injuries and days lost are from database on cases of absence from work due to occupational injuries. Data are filled in by general practitioner and the form is used for compensation reasons. First 30 days are compensated by employer, next from health insurance. Database name is Register on Legitimate Sickness Absenteeism from Work.
Objectives and users
Up to the present, the data are used:
- to analyze the health of the active population;
- to analyze the most frequent causes of occupational injuries.
In the future, they will be used:
- to define interventions in certain enterprises according to the number of injuries in the same activity;
- to determine the contributions of individual enterprises in respect of their workers;
- for planning education on occupational safety and health;
- for planning interventions in occupational safety and health at the national level.
Major users:
Ministry for Labour, Family and Social Affairs: Labour Inspectorate and;
Ministry of Health: Institute of Public Health and Agency for Health Care (the regional institutes for public health).
Coverage
Workers:
All persons insured, whether they are employees or self-employed, including workers employed on the basis of a contract of employment, workers with special contracts (these are not employees, but carry out special tasks; they are insured only for occupational injuries and diseases; new legislation will eliminate these types of contracts in the future), farmers and private employers, who are covered by health insurance.
Economic activities:
All economic activities and sectors.
Geographic areas:
The whole country.
Persons working outside the country but employed by enterprises with headquarters in Slovenia are included. Foreign workers employed by enterprises with headquarters in Slovenia area also included.
Establishments:
All types and sizes of establishments.
Types of occupational accidents covered
The statistics cover injuries due to all types of reported occupational accidents, including those occurring while on official travel for work.
Commuting accidents are included.
No statistics are compiled on occupational diseases, although a legal base for notification exists.
Concepts and definitions
(Source: Law on Pension and Disability Insurance).
Occupational injury:
an injury which is the consequence of a direct and brief mechanical, physical or chemical effect on the insured person. It can also be an injury that was caused due to a rapid change of body position, its sudden burdening or other changes of the physiological state of the insured person's body. In both cases, there must be a direct causal relation between the injury and the performing of the work or activity on the basis of which the person is insured.
An occupational injury is also considered as an injury caused as described above, which occurred:
- on the direct way between the insured person's residence and his workplace;
- on an official journey;
- on the way to start work;
- on the regular way between the person's residence or workplace and a place of medical examination, or while staying at the place of medical examination:
- if the insured person was sent to the medical examination by his physician, council of physicians, or by a special board which assesses disability, or
- if the insured person was not sent for a medical examination but was seeking first aid;
- on the regular way between the person's residence or workplace and a medical institution to which the insured person was sent, or while staying at the medical institution;
- on the regular way between the person's residence or workplace and place of medical examination or treatment or while staying at the place of medical examination or treatment if the insured person had to accompany a patient to the place of medical examination or treatment. The need to accompany should be determined by the patient's physician, council of physicians or by a special boards which assesses disability;
- on the regular way between the person's residence or workplace and place of medical examination or treatment and the institution where the insured person is provided with a prosthesis or other orthopedic equipment prescribed by the physician.
Permanent incapacity to work:
the reduction or loss of working ability in the post to which the person was permanently assigned before the occurrence of the disability, due to permanent changes in his state of health caused by injuries at work, occupational diseases, injuries not acquired at the workplace or diseases which cannot be cured by medical treatment or medical rehabilitation. In the case of permanent incapacity to work, the insured person is not able to perform any productive work for more than half the normal working hours.
Minimum period of absence from work:
one day.
Maximum period for death to be considered a fatal occupational injury:
none.
Types of information compiled
Data on cases of absence from work included in the Register on Legitimate Sickness Absenteeism from Work involve information on sex, age and economic activity. are also recorded). The Register is based on medical certificates which have to be submitted by workers to their employers in order to qualify for wage compensation.
Data on non fatal cases are beside the data showed on Laborsta also available in database on reporting cases in the notification system of injuries at work. This is the same as for fatal cases. Data are yearly published in Health Statistics Yearbook. Absolute number of reporting cases of occupational injury is lower than number of cases of absence from work. Information available is:
- personal characteristics of workers injured: sex, age, education, occupation, length of employment;
- amount of worktime lost: number of days lost is not correctly filled in. That is why source on cases of absence from work was used for non fatal cases
- characteristics of accidents: date and time of accident; total number of persons injured in the same accident; total number of persons fatally injured in the same accident (one person, two or more); course of events that resulted in the accident;
- characteristics of injuries: place of injury; cause of injury; medical report of the physician; death;
- characteristics of employers or workplaces: economic activity;
- other characteristics: use of protective means, safety and technical security system at the workplace.
Measurement of worktime lost
Worktime lost is measured in workdays and calendar days. It is compiled on temporary incapacity for non-fatal cases implying an absence from work of one day or more, from data included in the Register on Legitimate Sickness Absenteeism from Work (information on sex, age and economic activity are also recorded).
Classifications
- fatal or non-fatal accidents;
- extent of disability: none;
- economic activity:
- occupation: ISCO 88 short version
- type of injury: part of body injured (eyes, arms, palms and fingers, trunk, legs, other);
- cause of accident: machines; means of transport and lifting equipment; other equipment; materials, substances and radiation; working environment; other agencies, not elsewhere classified; agencies not classified for lack of sufficient data;
- duration of absence from work: no fixed groups are used;
- characteristics of workers: sex; age-group; marital status (single, married, divorced, widowed, unknown); level of education (without education, first to third class of primary school; unfinished primary school, fourth to seventh class of primary school; primary school; vocational school for skilled workers; vocational school for highly skilled workers; secondary school; college (two to three year programme); university, academy or higher professional school; unknown); length of time employed in the work performed at the time of the accident (not at work; up to 1 year; 1 to 4 years; 5 to 9 years; 10 to 19 years; 20 to 29 years; 30 to 34 years; 35 to 39 years; 40 years or more; unknown);
- characteristics of accidents: place of accident (at the workplace; on the way to work; on the way from work; on official travel); day of week; number of persons who died in the accident; total number of persons injured in the accident; amount of time worked on the day of the accident (not at work; up to 1 hour; 1 to 4 hours; 5 to 8 hours; 9 to 10 hours; 10 hours or more; unknown); time when the accident occurred (during regular working hours; during overtime; during unusual work (work performed in the case of force majeure);
- characteristics of employers or workplaces: status of the workplace: not dangerous; very dangerous; unhealthy; especially arduous work; workplaces where beneficiary time applies (i.e. those where working conditions are so dangerous for health that workers do not work as long as they would elsewhere; each year counts as fourteen months of service or more and workers retire earlier as a result); unsuitable for young people and women; suitable for disabled; other;
- other: place of death, in the case of fatal injury (at the place of the accident; on the way to the medical institution; at the medical institution; unknown).
Crossclassifications:
- sex and economic activity;
- sex and age-group;
- sex and place of accident.
Reference period
One year.
An injury is included in the statistics for the period (year) in which the accident occurred.
Worktime lost is included in each of the periods (years) in which worktime was lost.
Estimates
Total number of persons injured, in absolute figures and as percentage distributions.
Rates of all injuries, using the total number of persons insured as the denominator.
Rates of fatal injuries, using the total number of persons insured as the denominator.
Historical background of the series
The first obligatory notification of injuries at work dates back to 1918, during the time of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The first relatively accurate statistics were compiled in the 1950s.
Documentation
Series available:
The following tables are published each year from database on cases of sickness absence from work. Data were not specified for the reason (occupational injury):
- Sick-leave by spells, days off and rates by icd-10 chapters,
- Sick-leave rates for the full-time and for the part-time employment by Statistical region
- Sick-leave rates for workers by economic activities.
The following tables are published each year from database on reported injuries at work:
- number of persons injured, by sex and economic activity;
- rates of injuries per 1,000 persons insured, by sex and economic activity;
- number of fatal injuries, by sex and economic activity;
- rates of fatal injuries per 100,000 persons insured, by sex and economic activity;
- number of persons injured, by sex and age-group;
- number of persons injured, by sex and place of accident, in absolute figures and percentage distribution;
- rates of fatal injuries per 100,000 persons insured, by sex and age-group;
- number of persons injured by part of body injured, in absolute figures and percentage distribution.
Bibliographic references:
The data are published in:
Institute of Public Health: Yearbook on Health Statistics
.
Brief methodological notes appear in this publication along with the data.
The data are not all published. Other data could be made available on request, in printed form or 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 or compensated injuries (including commuting accidents) 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; rates of fatal injuries. The number of persons at risk (total number of persons insured) is also supplied and stored in the LABORSTA database.
Confidentiality:
The data are covered by the Law on the Protection of Data.
International standards
Not available.
Method of data collection
Legislation:
- Law on databases in health care (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 65/2000);
- Law on Pension and Disability Insurance (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 106/99, 20/2004);
- Law on Safety and Health at Work (Official Gazette, No. 56/1999).
Reporting:
The employer should complete a standard form, which is also partly completed by the physician of the injured person. Copies of the form should be sent to:
- regional Agency of Health Insurance;
- labour inspectorate;
- regional Institute of Public Health, where the form is checked and then sent to the national Institute of Public Health.
The same form is used for reporting injuries for the
self-employed.
Data reported:
The form for the notification an occupational injury consists of the following:
- information about the employer: name of establishment, registration number, economic activity, address;
- information about the injured person: name, sex, registration number, address, date of birth, marital status, occupation, level of education, whether the person received training for the workplace, length of employment in the work performed at the time of the accident, amount of time worked on the day of the accident, time when the accident occurred, safety status of the workplace, whether the workplace was technically secured, whether protective means were used, whether the injured person died, and place of death;
- information about the accident: date, day of week and time; place where the accident occurred; number of persons who died in the accident; total number of persons injured in the accident (including fatalities); external reason for the injury (fall of persons, objects, etc.); material cause of the injury (machine, tool, etc.); course of events that resulted in the injury (short description);
- information about the immediate supervisor: name and address;
- information about any witnesses: name and address;
- report of the physician who examined the injured person: name and address; provider of first aid (no first aid, medical professional, non-medical person, unknown); diagnosis and expected length of incapacity to work; whether the injured person had a disease which resulted in injury; whether the person had any physical or psychological defects; course of events that resulted in injury as described by the injured person.
The safety status of the workplace is assessed in different ways. In large enterprises, engineers from the enterprise's own service for safety at work assess the status. Medical doctors and occupational health specialists are also trained to assess the safety status and health risks to workers, but their analyses are rare. In small enterprises, managers report the safety status.
Changes planned:
The Slovenian informational system for accidents at work is being updated. Modification of reporting form is based on ESAW methodology recommendations. Break in time series is planed for 2007 data. For number of cases of occupational injury reported cases on notification form from employer will be used.