European statistics on accidents at work (ESAW)

Directorate-General For Employment Social Affairs And Inclusion European Commission Eurostat

Description

Methodology
Working conditions
Science and technology
Target audience: All

Sujets

• Medical statistics
• Work accident
• Statistics
• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-EMPLOYMENT_SOCIAL-AFFAIRS-AND-INCLUSION-EUROPEAN-COMMISS
• Nombre de lectures: 22
• Langue: English

Extrait

Foreword
All Community political actions include a social and economic component to mark the Community's concern to
improve working conditions and the health and safety of workers. Economic and social progress must go hand-in-
hand.
For the past thirty years the Commission's policy on health and safety in the workplace has aimed to reduce
accidents at work and occupational diseases to a minimum.
This Community action on health and safety at work has its legal basis in Article 137 (ex Article 118a) of the Treaty
establishing the European Community. The Council has adopted about fifteen Directives, almost all of which have
already been transposed into national law by the Member States.
However, for the Commission, the preparation of a large body of legislation and its transposition into national law in the
Member States are the means and not the end. The ultimate aim is to reduce accidents at work and occupational
diseases. It is to prevent the suffering of workers and their families, the problems relating to the quality of work, the
social rehabilitation and the economic impact of all this - which has repercussions on society as a whole -.
For this reason, to monitor the effectiveness of existing legislative and non-legislative measures, the Framework
Directive requires enterprises to keep a list of occupational accidents resulting in a worker being unfit for work for
more than three days.
In 1990 work began at European level to harmonise the criteria and the methodologies used to record data on
accidents at work. As a result of this comprehensive work carried out together with the Member States, this
publication is the final methodology of the European Statistics of Accidents at Work, including the harmonised tools
to analyse the causes and circumstances of accidents at work (data collection, classifications, codification rules).
The results will permit better monitoring of the application of the Directives and, where necessary, the reshaping of
these Directives to meet new requirements and the introduction of new policies at Community level.
This publication is addressed primarily to the national institutions responsible for recording and processing
information on accidents at work, e.g. the statistical offices, insurance companies and mutual societies, and
departments for the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases. More widely, it will be useful to technicians
and experts working in the field and to businesses.
DG Employment and social affairs Eurostat
J.R. Biosca De Sagastuy M. Skaliotis
Head of Unit D-5 Head of Unit E-3
“Health, safety and “Education, health and
hygiene at work” other social fields”
3Preface
Work on the project to harmonise European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW) began in 1990 and is co-
ordinated jointly by Unit E3 of Eurostat and Unit D/5 of the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs
(DG EMPL) in order to draw up a methodology for the collection of comparable data in the European Union.
The purpose of this work is to harmonise the criteria and methodologies to be applied when recording data on
accidents at work. These have been developed in different stages in order to improve the techniques for monitoring
the application of measures taken under Article 137 (ex Article 118a) of the Treaty with a view to encouraging
improvements in the working environment and protecting the safety and health of workers.
1The Framework Directive 89/391/EEC( ) on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety
and health of workers at work did in fact introduce, in Article 9, paragraphs c) and d), the obligation for employers to
keep a list of occupational accidents resulting in a worker being unfit for work for more than three days, and, in
accordance with national laws and/or practices, to draw up reports on occupational accidents suffered by their
workers.
2In the same context, it should also be stressed that the Council, in its Resolutions of 21 December 1987( ) and 27
3March 1995( ), specifically asked the Commission to submit proposals for harmonising statistics on accidents at
work, and then called upon the Commission to endeavour to complete the work in progress in this field. The
programme for safety, hygiene and health protection at work (1996-2000) also provides for the continued
implementation of the ESAW project. This project does, finally, form an integral part of the framework programme
4for priority actions in the field of statistical information 1993-1997( ). Similarly, the Council Decision of 22 December
51998 on the Community statistical programme 1998-2002( ), which defines the main fields and objectives of
European Community statistics, makes provision for compiling consistent series of data at European level in order
to monitor health and safety at work and the effectiveness of regulations in this field.
66Phases I and II of the ESAW project have been running since 1993( ) and 1996( ) respectively. They have been
developed since 1990 by Commission (DG EMPL and EUROSTAT) together with the Member States. The ESAW
Working Group was established in order to follow the work and give recommendations to the European
Commission in developing this field of statistics. A Task Force with national experts has also been established in
order to give technical advice in developing a methodology which takes into account - as far as possible - , the
extant reporting procedures and methodologies in the various Member States.
The Phase I covers variables which seek to identify the economic activity of the employer, the occupation, age and
sex of the victim, the nature of the injury and the part of the body injured, as well as the geographical location, date
and time of the accident, whilst Phase II supplements these initial data with information on the size of the enterprise,
the victim's nationality and employment status, as well as the consequences of the accident in terms of the number
of days lost, permanent incapacity or death as a result of the accident.
All these variables provide information which makes it possible to identify the characteristics of the enterprise, the
victim, the injury and its consequences, and the date and place of the accident. However, in order to foster a more
active European policy for the prevention of accidents at work, Phase III of ESAW covers other harmonised
7variables and classifications on the causes and circumstances( ) of accidents at work which will help establish the
situation and conditions prevailing at the time of the accident. The results of these analyses will provide useful
information which will assist in the development of new and carefully targeted prevention policies.
1( ) 89/391/EEC, OJ L 183 of 29.06.1989
2( ) 88/C 28/01, OJ C 28 of 03.02.1988
3( ) 95/C 168/01, OJ C 168 of 04.07.1995
4( ) 93/464/EEC, OJ L 219 of 28.08.1993
5( ) 99/126/EC, OJ L 42 of 16.02.1999
6( ) Reference year = data collected on accidents in this year.
7( ) On the basis of a project of European codification system of the causes and circumstances of accidents at work proposed
by a Group of Member States (DWES of Denmark, HVBG of Germany, CNAMTS of France and INAIL of Italy)
coordinated by EUROGIP (France), validated beforehand using a sample of over 6 000 actual accidents in different EU
Member States (Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and the UK).
46
The first reference year for Phase III of the project is 2001( ).
It should be noted that the ESAW project has been given international recognition by the ILO Resolution on
8“Statistics on occupational injuries resulting from accidents at work”( ) which adopted much of the European
Commission's ESAW methodology. In particular, Phase III is both the methodological basis and the first actual
attempt to use the supplementary information on the circumstances of accidents, the development of which is
mentioned in the Resolution. It will harmonise data on this subject from the Member States of the European Union
and any other countries which wish to use the system. This tool is, at the same time, close enough to the national
systems already operating in full or in part in certain countries for its implementation to be highly successful in the
national institutions providing the data (social security system, insurance sector, labour inspectorate). It could, if
necessary, even be used by enterprises themselves.
This publication presents the results of the work on the methodology for the three phases of ESAW carried out
since 1990 by the Commission services and experts in this field from relevant institutions (National Statistical
Institutes, Labour and Social Affairs Ministries or Departments, Social Security Institutions) in the field of
Occupational Health and Safety in the Member States. The tangible result is a full set of variables along with their
classifications, explanatory notes and coding guides.
Whilst compiling this system, the designers never deviated from their goal of creating a tool for collecting
information which would be useful for preventing accidents at work throughout Europe by ensuring there was
maximum compatibility with the existing statistical systems in the Member States. A good deal of attention was
therefore paid to these systems and to the proposals made by all the partners in the project. The general aim was to
compile a methodology which was detailed enough to be effective but was not too complex, both as a whole and for
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