Resolution concerning statistics of occupational injuries resulting from occupational accidents

     The Sixteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians,

     Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office and having met from 6 to 15 October 1998,

     Recalling the resolution concerning statistics of occupational injuries adopted by the Thirteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians (1982),

     Recalling the Code of practice on the recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases, approved by the Governing Body of the ILO at its 261st Session (November 1994),

     Observing that the existing international standards on statistics of occupational injuries do not provide adequate guidance on the measurement and classification of occupational injuries,

     Recognizing that statistics of occupational injuries should form part of a broad programme of statistics of occupational safety and health,

     Recognizing that statistics of occupational injuries are essential for effective programmes for the prevention of occupational accidents, and for their monitoring,

     Recognizing further that international guidelines on the measurement and classification of occupational injuries will promote the development of these statistics along sound lines and improve their international comparability;

     Adopts this fifteenth day of October 1998 the following resolution:

General objectives and uses

     1.  Each country should aim to develop a comprehensive programme of statistics on occupational safety and health, including occupational diseases and occupational injuries. The objective of this programme would be to provide an adequate statistical base for the various users, taking into account the specific national needs and circumstances. One of the major components of the programme should comprise statistics on occupational injuries, which should be based on a range of sources of information, and which may be used in conjunction with other appropriate economic and social indicators.

     2.  This resolution aims to set out standards of good practice for the collection and presentation of statistics of occupational injuries as guidance for countries wishing to revise their existing statistical systems in this field, or establish new ones. Its provisions should not undermine any existing national systems, nor should they lead to duplication of effort.

     3.  The principal objective of the statistics is to provide comprehensive and timely information on occupational injuries for prevention purposes. The statistics may be used for a number of purposes, such as:

1. to identify the occupations and economic activities where occupational injuries occur, along with their extent, severity and the way in which they occur, as a basis for planning preventive measures;
2. to set priorities for preventive efforts;
3. to detect changes in the pattern and occurrence of occupational injuries, so as to monitor improvements in safety and reveal any new areas of risk;
4. to inform employers, employers' organizations, workers and workers' organizations of the risks associated with their work and workplaces, so that they can take an active part in their own safety;
5. to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive measures;
6. to estimate the consequences of occupational injuries, particularly in terms of days lost or costs;
7. to provide a basis for policy-making aimed at encouraging employers, employers' organizations, workers and workers' organizations to introduce accident prevention measures;
8. to assist in developing training material and programmes for accident prevention;
9. to provide a basis for identifying possible areas for future research.

     4.  The major users of the statistics, including the representative organizations of employers and workers, should be consulted when the concepts, definitions and methodology for the collection, compilation and dissemination of the statistics are designed or revised, with a view to taking into account their needs and obtaining their cooperation.

Terms and definitions

     5.  For the purposes of statistics of occupational injuries, the following terms and definitions are used:

1. occupational accident: an unexpected and unplanned occurrence, including acts of violence, arising out of or in connection with work which results in one or more workers incurring a personal injury, disease or death; as occupational accidents are to be considered travel, transport or road traffic accidents in which workers are injured and which arise out of or in the course of work, i.e. while engaged in an economic activity, or at work, or carrying on the business of the employer;
2. commuting accident: an accident occurring on the habitual route, in either direction, between the place of work or work-related training and:
   1. the worker's principal or secondary residence;
   2. the place where the worker usually takes his or her meals; or
   3. the place where he or she usually receives his or her remuneration;
   which results in death or personal injury;
3. occupational injury: any personal injury, disease or death resulting from an occupational accident; an occupational injury is therefore distinct from an occupational disease, which is a disease contracted as a result of an exposure over a period of time to risk factors arising from work activity;
4. case of occupational injury: the case of one worker incurring an occupational injury as a result of one occupational accident;
5. incapacity for work: inability of the victim, due to an occupational injury, to perform the normal duties of work in the job or post occupied at the time of the occupational accident.

Coverage

     6.  The various sources of statistics should, where practical, cover all occupational injuries, as defined in paragraph 5, including non-fatal injuries causing an absence from work of at least one day, excluding the day of the accident, and fatal injuries. Where it is practical and considered relevant to include injuries resulting from commuting accidents, the information relating to them should be compiled and disseminated separately.

     7.  Where practical, the statistics should cover all workers regardless of their status in employment (for example, employee, employer and own-account worker). The coverage should include child workers¹, informal sector workers and homeworkers, where they exist.

     8.  The statistics should in principle cover the whole country, all branches of economic activity and all sectors of the economy. A case of occupational injury occurring while a worker is outside the country of normal residence should be included in the statistics of the country within whose jurisdiction the accident took place.

Types of data

     9.  Countries should aim to collect the following types of information regarding cases of occupational injury:

1. information about the enterprise, establishment or local unit:
   1. location;
   2. economic activity;
   3. size (number of workers);
2. information about the person injured:
   1. sex;
   2. age;
   3. occupation;
   4. status in employment;
3. information about the injury:
   1. whether fatal or non-fatal;
   2. type of injury;
   3. part of body injured;
4. information about the accident and its circumstances:
   1. type of location of the accident: such as the usual workplace, another place within the establishment, outside the premises of the establishment;
   2. date and time of the accident;
   3. mode of injury: how the person was injured by a physical contact with an item or object which caused the injury or was psychologically affected by an event; if there are several injuries, the mode of the most serious injury should be recorded;
   4. material agency of injury: the item, agent, object or product associated with the injury, i.e. the physical tool, object, element, etc. with which the victim came into contact and was injured by; if there are several injuries, the material agency associated with the most serious injury should be recorded.

     10. The programme of statistics can include studies to assess the value of further information as, for example, given below. Countries which thus find this or other information useful could continue to develop their programme of statistics further, especially for more serious cases of occupational injuries and fatalities.

1. information about the injury:
   1. incapacity for work expressed in calendar days of absence from work;
2. information about the accident and its circumstances:
   1. shift, start time of work of the injured person and hours worked in the activity when the accident occurred;
   2. the total number of workers injured in the accident;
   3. place of occurrence: the type of place where the accident occurred, such as a production or construction area, trade or service area, farm, street or highway;
   4. work process in which the injured person was engaged when the accident occurred: the main type or kind of work being carried out by the victim during the period up to the accident (this is a subset of the tasks covered by the occupation of the victim), such as setting up machines, cleaning of working area, teaching;
   5. specific activity of the injured person at the time of the accident: the activity actually being carried out by the victim when the accident occurred; the duration of the activity may range from very short to long; it may or may not be associated with an item or object, such as feeding the machine, operating transport equipment, carrying loads;
   6. material agency associated with the specific activity of the injured person: the tool, object, element, product, etc., used by the victim in the specific activity when the accident happened (this may not necessarily be implicated in the accident), such as floors, doors, hand tools, mobile cranes;
   7. deviation which resulted in the accident: what occurred in an abnormal way, deviating from the normal way of working or the normal process, i.e. what went wrong, the event leading to the accident, such as breakage, loss of control of machine, fall of person, aggression; if there are several interlinked or successive events, the last one should be recorded;
   8. material agency associated with the deviation: the tool, object, element, product, etc. linked with what occurred in an abnormal way, such as floors, doors, hand tools, mobile cranes.

     11. Where injuries due to commuting accidents are covered, information corresponding to that provided for in paragraph 9 should be collected, as well as the following:

1. place of accident;
2. the injured person's mode of transport;
3. the injured person's transport role;
4. the mode of transport of the counterpart (if any).

Measurement

Occupational injury:

     12. The unit of observation should be the case of occupational injury, i.e. the case of one worker incurring an occupational injury as a result of one occupational accident. If a person is injured in more than one occupational accident during the reference period, each case of injury to that person should be counted separately. Recurrent absences due to an injury resulting from a single occupational accident should be treated as the continuation of the same case of occupational injury, not as new cases. Where more than one person is injured in a single accident, each case of occupational injury should be counted separately.

Fatal occupational injury:

     13. For measurement purposes, a fatal occupational injury is an occupational injury leading to death within one year of the day of the occupational accident.

Time lost due to occupational injuries:

     14. Time lost should be measured separately for each case of occupational injury leading to temporary incapacity for work of a maximum of one year. In order to assess the severity of the injury, time lost should be measured in terms of the number of calendar days during which the injured person is temporarily incapacitated, based on the information available at the time the statistics are compiled. If it is measured in workdays, attempts should be made to assess the total number of calendar days lost.

     15. The time lost should be measured inclusively from the day after the day of the accident, to the day prior to the day of return to work. In the case of recurrent absences due to a single case of occupational injury, each period of absence should be measured as above, and the resulting number of days lost for each period summed to arrive at the total for the case of injury. Temporary absences from work of less than one day for medical treatment should not be included in time lost.

     16. The time lost as a result of permanent incapacity for work or fatal occupational injuries may also be estimated. In these cases, the data should be compiled and disseminated separately from data relating to temporary incapacity for work.

Reference period and periodicity

     17. For a given reference period, the statistics should relate to the number of cases of occupational injury occurring during the period and the total time lost as a result of those cases of injury. Cases of fatal injury should be included in the statistics for the reference period during which the occupational accident occurred.

     18. The statistics should be compiled at least once a year for a reference period of not more than a year. Where seasonal trends may be considered to be important, the statistics may be compiled more frequently, using shorter reference periods, such as a month or a quarter.

Comparative measures

     19. In order to permit meaningful comparisons of the statistics, for example between different periods, economic activities, regions and countries, account needs to be taken of the differences in employment size, changes in the number of workers in the reference group, as well as in the hours worked by those in the reference group. A number of rates which take into account these differences may be calculated, including the following measures, which are among those most useful for comparing information at both the national and international levels. The term workers in the reference group refers to those workers in the particular group under consideration and covered by the source of the statistics of occupational injuries (for example those of a specific sex or in a specific economic activity, occupation, region, age group, or any combination of these, or those covered by a particular insurance scheme).

For each of the measures below, the numerator and the denominator should have the same coverage. For example, if self-employed persons are covered in the statistics of occupational injuries they should also be covered in the denominator.

1. The frequency rate of new cases of occupational injury: (Number of new cases of occupational injury during the reference period / Total number of hours worked by workers in the reference group during the reference period) x 1,000,000 This may be calculated separately for fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries. Ideally, the denominator should be the number of hours actually worked by workers in the reference group. If this is not possible, it may be calculated on the basis of normal hours of work, taking into account entitlements to periods of paid absence from work, such as paid vacations, paid sick leave and public holidays.
2. The incidence rate of new cases of occupational injury: (Number of new cases of occupational injury during the reference period / Total number of workers in the reference group during the reference period) x 1,000 This may be calculated separately for fatal and non-fatal injuries. The number of workers in the reference group should be the average for the reference period. In calculating the average, account should be taken of the hours normally worked by those persons. The number of those working part time should be converted to full-time equivalents.
3. The severity rate of new cases of occupational injury: (Number of days lost as a result of new cases of occupational injury during the reference period / Total amount of time worked by workers in the reference group during the reference period) x 1,000,000 This should be calculated only for temporary incapacity for work. The amount of time worked by workers in the reference group should preferably be measured in hours worked.
4. Days lost per new case of occupational injury: Median or mean of the number of days lost for each new case of occupational injury during the reference period.

All the measures may be calculated according to economic activity, occupation, age group, etc., or any combination of these.

Dissemination

     20. The statistics of occupational injuries that are compiled should be disseminated regularly, at least once a year; preliminary figures should be released no later than one year after the end of each reference period. The disseminated data should include time series, as well as the data for the most recent reference period. Any revisions to figures released in the past should be clearly indicated in newly disseminated data.

     21. Detailed descriptions of the sources, concepts, definitions and methodology used in collecting and compiling the statistics on occupational injuries should be:

1. produced and updated to reflect significant changes;
2. disseminated by the competent body;
3. communicated to the ILO.

     22. In order to promote the comparability of the statistics among countries whose national statistical practices do not conform closely to the international standards, the disseminated data should be accompanied by an explanation of any divergences from those standards.

     23. Dissemination may take the form of printed publications, electronic data sets, etc. Where possible, the relevant competent authority should make data available on the Internet, so as to facilitate analysis by users throughout the world. The statistics should be disseminated in such a way that the disclosure of any information relating to an individual statistical unit, such as a person, household, an establishment or an enterprise is not possible, unless prior permission has been obtained from the individual units concerned.

     24. Each year, countries should communicate to the ILO the statistics on occupational injuries (not including individual cases) requested for dissemination by the ILO in its Yearbook of Labour Statistics and other forms.

Sources of data

     25. In compiling statistics of occupational injuries, various sources of information should be used in order to provide as full a picture as possible of the situation at a given point in time and to give an estimate of any under-reporting which may occur. For example, consideration could be given to periodically supplementing the information available from systems for the notification of compensation of occupational injuries by adding brief modules of questions to existing survey questionnaires, such as those used for establishment surveys for employment and wages, and for labour force surveys. In addition, the feasibility of developing new sources should be examined.

     26. Where data from different sources are used together, attempts should be made to ensure that the concepts, definitions, coverage and classifications used by the different sources are consistent. To this end, it would be useful to establish a coordinating committee at the national level, comprising representatives of government, other producers of statistics on occupational injuries, and employers' and workers' organizations. In addition, efforts should be made to harmonize the statistics compiled from different sources and by different bodies.

Classification

     27. The data should be classified at least according to major branch of economic activity and as far as possible according to other significant characteristics of persons injured, of enterprises or establishments, of occupational injuries and of occupational accidents for which information is collected in accordance with paragraph 9. Countries should attempt to use classifications that are either comparable with or can be related to the most recent versions of the relevant international classifications, where these exist. Annexes A to F provide the most recent versions of the international classifications below, up to the second level, where available. It may however be desirable, for accident prevention purposes, for countries to classify their data at a greater level of detail.

• International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Revision 3 (1990).
• Classification according to employment size of establishments, as in the International Recommendations for Industrial Statistics, Rev. 1 (1983).
• International Standard Classification of Occupations, ISCO-88.
• International Classification of Status in Employment, ICSE-93.
• Type of injury, from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, ICD-10 (1992).
• Part of body injured, from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, ICD-10 (1992).

The ILO should develop and disseminate classifications to replace or supplement the existing schemes adopted by the Tenth ICLS in 1962 for the variables listed below:

• type of location of the accident;
• mode of injury;
• material agency of injury.

     28. The ILO should develop and disseminate classifications to replace or supplement the existing schemes adopted by the Tenth ICLS in 1962, for variables such as those given below. Furthermore, the ILO should encourage and help countries to develop their own classifications to give further information which they can use for their purposes.

For occupational injuries:

• place of occurrence;
• work process;
• specific activity;
• deviation;
• material agency associated with the specific activity or the deviation.

For injuries due to commuting accidents:

• place of accident;
• injured person's mode of transport;
• injured person's transport role;
• mode of transport of counterpart.

Further action

     29. The ILO should prepare a manual to provide technical guidance on the contents of this resolution. This manual should also cover the collection of information on occupational injuries in the informal sector and among child workers, the collection of information through household surveys and establishment surveys, the estimation of under-reporting and of costs of occupational injuries, the classifications to be developed as recommended in paragraphs 27 and 28, and how they should be applied, as well as the establishment of a mapping between ICD-10 and the classifications in Annexes E and F. It should also cooperate, as far as possible, with countries in the development of statistics of occupational injuries by providing technical assistance and training.

     30. Other areas for future work by the ILO include:

1. developing standards for statistics of occupational diseases; and
2. making worldwide estimates of the number of fatal occupational injuries.

¹ This inclusion should not be interpreted as condoning child labour.