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Fatal occupational injuries

IOSH policy position

Over a third of a million lives are lost globally to injuries at work each year. Increased awareness and more effective controls are urgently needed to protect workers. This requires strong leadership, worker involvement and OSH capacity-building, underpinned by effective OSH regulatory regimes.

The facts

  • The 2017 Global estimates of occupational accidents and work-related illnesses report, highlights that there are more than 380,000 fatal occupational accidents each year. Globally, 1,000 people are estimated to die every day due to occupational accidents.
  • According to the ILO, the human cost of occupational injuries and illnesses is vast and the economic burden of poor OSH practices is estimated at 3.94 per cent of the world’s GDP.
  • According to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) every year there are over 3 million accidents at work in the European Union, with 4,000 of them fatal.
  • An OSH barometer from EU-OSHA determined the EU average for fatal accidents as 1.85 accidents per 100,000 employees in the period 2010-2017.
  • Preventing occupational injuries is recognised in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development target 8.8 to promote safe and secure working environments for all workers; and target 3.6 to halve the number of global deaths from road traffic accidents.

Recent figures from the ILO Vision Zero Fund estimate that 60% of the world’s labour force is ineffectively protected against work-related accidents and illnesses.

Our position

Fatal injuries at work have a significant human, social and economic cost, negatively affecting workers and their families, organisations of all sizes, local communities and wider society. Governmental and corporate action is needed to prevent them and to ensure that all work is safe and healthy.

Though there has been some progress to improve safety over the decades, through technological advances and safer plant, equipment and procedures, tragically, over a third of a million lives are lost globally to fatal work-related injuries each year. Increased awareness and more effective controls are urgently needed to protect workers worldwide.

We encourage a holistic approach to preventing deaths due to occupational injuries through multi-faceted governmental and corporate prevention strategies. These include engineering controls, protective equipment and technologies, management commitment and investment in safety, education and training programmes, and national awareness campaigns and regulation. IOSH supports the ISSA Vison Zero campaign, a prevention strategy for safety, health and wellbeing at all levels of work, co-developing a training package, which IOSH will deliver.

We promote safe work and workplaces in which no lives are lost. This requires strong leadership, worker involvement and OSH capacity-building, underpinned by effective OSH regulatory regimes. All fatal injuries and near misses need to be properly investigated, immediate and root causes identified, and prompt remedial action taken. Contributing factors, such as excessive hours and fatigue, inadequate training, resources and supervision, occupational road risk, and poor corporate culture, must be addressed.