Tanzania, United Rep. of

Organization responsible for the statistics

Labour Statistics Unit, Ministry of Labour and Youth Development.

Periodicity

Annual.

Source

Reports of occupational injuries submitted to the Labour Office for processing for compensation, either from the National Insurance Corporation, for employees in private and parastatal establishments, or directly from the Government, which carries liability for its own employees.

Objectives and users

To provide information needed to understand the basic characteristics of occupational accidents, in order to reduce them.

Coverage

Persons:

Employees.

In 1990, there were about 762,000 employees in the formal sector.

Economic activities:

All economic activities and sectors (excluding the informal sector).

Geographic areas:

Mainland Tanzania (Tanganyika).

Establishments:

All types and sizes of establishments. (However, although all private and parastatal employers are legally obliged to insure their employees for workers' compensation, it is known that many small employers do not insure their employees, and therefore do not report occupational accidents; compensation may be paid informally in such cases.)

Types of occupational accidents covered

The statistics relate to occupational injuries resulting from all types of occupational accidents, which cause a loss of earning capacity to the workers injured.

Concepts and definitions

(Source: Workmen's Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 263))

Industrial accident:

An accident arising out of and in the course of employment with the employer, with a loss of earning capacity of the worker. In the course of employment means in the course of the work for which the workman is employed, and incidental to it.

Partial incapacity:

Temporary:

Such incapacity as reduces the earning capacity of a workman in any employment in which he was engaged at the time of the accident resulting in the incapacity.

Permanent:

Such incapacity as reduces the workman's earning capacity in every employment he was capable of undertaking at the time of the accident resulting in the incapacity.

Total incapacity:

Such incapacity, whether of a temporary or permanent nature, as incapacitates a workman for any employment which he was capable of undertaking at the time of the accident resulting in such incapacity.

Minimum period of absence from work: none.

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

Types of information compiled

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

(b) amount of worktime lost: full days lost and days of light duties;

(c) characteristics of accidents: cause of injury;

(d) characteristics of injuries: part of body injured; nature of injury;

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

(f) other characteristics: value of compensation paid for death, permanent injury, temporary injury.

Measurement of worktime lost

Information not available.

Classifications

(a) fatal or non-fatal accidents:

(b) extent of disability:

percentage of permanent incapacity: 0, 1-5, 6-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-50, 51-99;

(c) economic activity:

agriculture; mining and quarrying; manufacturing; water and electricity; construction; trade; transport and communication; finance; public administration and other services; not stated;

(d) occupation:

according to the Tanzanian Standard Classification of Occupations (TASCO): professional and technical workers; administrators and managers; clerks; other clerical workers; sales workers; police and prison workers; security workers; other service workers; skilled agricultural workers; tool operators; mechanical fitters; car mechanics; electric fitters; plumbers and welders; carpentry workers and brick layers; dock workers; rail transport workers; lorry drivers; drivers of other vehicles; labourers; other production workers;

(e) type of injury:

nature of injury: multiple injuries; contusions and abrasions; burns and scalds; concussion; cuts and lacerations; puncture wounds; amputations; dislocations; fractures (simple and compound); sprains and strains; asphyxiation and drowning; tearing of internal organs; electric shock; eye injuries; others; diseases; not stated;

location of injury: head: face; arm at or above elbow; arm below elbow; hand; thumb; any one finger; two fingers, same hand; three fingers, same hand; four fingers, same hand; thumb and two fingers, same hand; thumb and three fingers, same hand; thumb and four fingers, same hand; leg at or above knee; leg below knee; foot; great tow and any two or more toes, same foot; two great toes; one eye, loss of sight; two eyes, loss of sight; both ears, loss of hearing;

(f) cause of accident:

cause of injury: machinery with power (prime mover, transmission, lifting); handling without machinery (lifting, other); means of transport (power driven; motor vehicle, other; not power driven); fire; explosion; other hot or corrosive substances; gassing and poisoning; electric shock; fall of person or object; stepping over or striking against object; use of hand tools; miscellaneous including animals; thugs and robbery; other; not stated;

(g) duration of absence from work:

number of full days lost: 0, 1-3, 4-7, 8-14, 15-30, 31-60, 61- 990; number of days of light duties: 0, 1-3, 4-7, 8-14, 15-30, 31-60, 61-660;

(h) characteristics of workers:

sex; age (under 18 years; 18 years and over);

(i) characteristics of accidents:

none;

(j) characteristics of employers or workplaces:

none.

Crossclassifications:

Reference period

Year.

Injuries and time not worked are usually included in the statistics for the period (year) in which compensation was finalized. The accidents often occurred in the previous year, and some may go back several years.

Estimates

Total number of occupational injuries, full days lost, days of light duties.

Averages and medians of full days lost and days of light duties per injury.

Rates of occupational injuries per 1,000 employees in the formal sector.

Historical background of the series

Information not available.

Documentation

Series available:

The following tables are published:

Number of occupational injuries, by:

Rates of injury per 1,000 employees, by:

Value of compensation paid, for:

Number of full days lost from work and of light duties, by:

For selected economic activities:

Number and percentage distribution of occupational injuries by:

Bibliographic references:

The data are published in:

Ministry of Labour and Youth Development, Department of Labour: Tanzania, Industrial Accidents (annual).

Ministry of Labour and Youth Development, Labour Statistics Unit: LSU Newsletter (quarterly).

Methodological information is included in the first publication listed above.

Data published by ILO:

The following data are furnished to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, relating to compensated injuries (including occupational diseases) according to major division of 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:

Information not available.

International standards

Information not available.

Method of data collection

Legislation:

It is compulsory for occupational accidents to be reported under the Accidents and Occupational Diseases Notification Ordinance, Cap. 330, of 1955, and for employees to be insured against occupational injuries under the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance. All occupational accidents causing a reduction in the earnings capacity of workers should be notified.

Reporting:

The employer is responsible for reporting the accident to a Labour Office, which then supplies a form for the employee concerned. Details of the accident are recorded on this form, and a medical officer has to make an assessment of the extent of the injuries. The extent of the injury is judged in three parts for non-fatal cases: the percentage of permanent incapacity due to the injury, the estimated time absent from work, and the estimated time on light duties. On return of the form to the Labour Office, the value of each of the items is calculated. The employer usually pays the employee the value of the permanent injury and the normal wage for the other items, then claims these amounts from the insurance company. A summary record of all accidents finalized is sent each quarter to the Labour Department Headquarters.

Data reported:

The form used to give notice of an accident consists of the following:
  1. information about the employer: name, address, nature of industry or business, and, for mines, state registered number of title and name of holder;
  2. information about the victim: name, age, sex, (in the case of an African) tribe, village, headman, chief or chiefdom, district or boma, country (if other than Tanzania), (in fatal cases) name and address of next of kin);
  3. information about the accident: date, time and place of accident; description of how accident happened; occupation of injured person; for mining accidents: hours of shift worked by injured person before the incident; rank and name of person in charge of the place where the accident occurred at the time of the accident;
  4. information about the injury: fatal or non-fatal; whether the person was away from work for at least three days; particulars of the injury; name of medical practitioner or hospital attended; earnings per month at the time of the accident (wage rate; cost of living allowance; value of rations; value of housing; value of fuel; overtime payment or other special remuneration for work done if of a constant character and for work habitually performed).
In the case of a death, the employer is required to provide the following:
  1. information about the employer: name and address; nature of industry or business;
  2. information about the worker: name; age; sex; (in the case of an African) tribe, village, headman, chief or chiefdom, district or boma, country; name and address of next of kin; circumstances of the death of the worker; details of wages and of deposits due to deceased and of any property left on employer's premises.

The following information is provided by the medical officer:

  1. dates of treatment as an in patient;
  2. dates of treatment as an out patient;
  3. date of ability to resume duty;
  4. period and percentage of total or partial incapacity;
  5. percentage of permanent incapacity;
  6. nature of injury;
  7. location of injury.

Changes planned:

None.