Copyright © Int ernational Labour Organization
First published 2007
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ISBN: 978-92-2-419 745-1
ISBN: 978-92 -2-419746-8 (web, pdf)
Nowadays, it is economical for every enterprise to abide by the labour legislation and keep a high level
of occupational safety and health as it allows to save fund s!
Accident-related expenses are often underestimated by the management because:
- The record of accidents is not kep t;
- Costs resulting from accidents are not calculated;
- Only obvious loss of property is registered (damaged buildings, structures, equipment or tools);
- Indirect costs and lost profits are not taken into account;
- Accident-related costs are not compared with other indicators of an enterprise's performance.
Of course, it is impossible to be absolutely insured against accidents, but it is possible to significantly
improve occupational safety and health which will, by all means, result in lesser unforeseen costs and
losses.
The purpose of the leaflet is:
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To show how expensive accidents at work can be for an enterprise;
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To explain how you can reduce the costs;
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To suggest simple methods to calculate accident-related costs;
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To prove that high level of occupational safety and health is not only a requiremen t of the law
but a means to save time and money.
An accident at work leads both to the loss of money and time. Insurance cannot
cover all the expenses.
A total of accident-related expenses can be compared with an enterprise's
annual income.
However, accidents can be prevented which will save you time and money.
Remember!
An example of an accident: A badly secured metal beam fell from a travelling crane while being hoisted and hit a leg
of a worker. An ambulance took him to hospital. The worker sustained a bone fracture and spent two months on a
sick leave.
All in all, the injured worker w as absent from work for 310 hours including 4 hours on the day of the accident. The
worker's pay was 100 roubles per h our.
The amount of work to be done during the worker's incapacity for work was partially compensated for by another
hired worker. It cost 1280 roubles to provide him with personal protective equipment and instruct him on the duties
and safety. Besides, an overtime of 40 hours was organized. The additional works cost 50 roubles per hour.
An OSH engineer (paid 6O roubles per hour) spent 4 hours looking into the accident. It took 2 auxiliary workers
(paid 50 roubles per ho ur each) 12 hours to clean up the site of the accident.
The metal beam costing 8 thousand roubles was damaged beyond repair. Also, it broke a welding unit worth 50
thousand roubles.
The accident made 6 workers stop their activities for an hour (four of them are paid 100 roubles per hour, the two
others - 120 roubles per hour]. Following the investigation, an off-schedule one-hour instruction was given to them.
The enterprise 's actual accident-related costs were estimated at about 80 thousand roubles.
Firstly (and this is the key thing!), your worker lost his health, and sometimes life can be lost that cannot
be compensated for!
Secondly, the equipment, tools, raw materials and the end product of the enterprise were damaged.
Thirdly, other workers were distracted from work in the course of investigation into the accident.
Fourthly, the products were not manufactured, services were not rendered - your enterprise lost profits.
And do not forget - the accident may bring your company into disrepute.
And finally, the enterprise may be fined, an increased insurance premium of the Social Insurance Fund
may be imposed, i.e. you may face substantial money losses.
Any accident at work results both in direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are obvious while the indirect
ones a re often not. Indirect costs generally exceed, or at least equal, the direct ones. The proportion
between direct and indirect costs can be described as an iceberg:
DIRECT COSTS
- Wage of the injured on the day of the accident;
- Investigators' salaries;
- Expenses on the accident investigation, fines, etc.
INDIRECT COSTS
- Workers' loss of time;
- Damaged equipment, tools, raw materials, end products,
suspension of production;
- Exp enses on restoring safety on the site of the a ccident;
- Labour hours of workers distracted from their activities;
- Loss of profits;
- Increased insurance premiums to the Social Insurance Fund, etc.
Accident-related indirect costs are much higher than the direct ones.
But you can reduce costs through prevention of accidents.
Thus, you will contribu te to the development of your enterprise!
Remember!
If your enterprise employs experienced and skilful staff, continuously monitors the situation and has not
had any acciden ts so far it does not mean that no accidents will occur in the future.
Accidents may occur and they do occur
It is common knowledge that it is mostly the experienced workers who tend to adapt for danger, very
often neglect safety rules and cause accidents at work.
Not only serious accidents - severe or fatal ones with a lot of people involved - lead to major losses.
Minor accidents generally result in lesser costs, but bear in mind that they tend to occur more often.
Think of indirect costs which are m uch higher than the direct ones!
Remember!
The smaller the enterprise, the worse it can be affected by a serious
accident. In some cases it may go bust!
Minor accidents result in les ser costs, but they are more frequent.
The example of an iceberg proves that insurance cannot cover all the enterprise's accident-related
costs. Besides,
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If the accident rate at the enterprise is higher than the average one for the respective
industry in Russ ia, the following year the enterprise will have to pay an insurance premium
o f up to 40 percent higher. Therefore, indirect financial losses resulting from accidents at
work will increase accordingly.
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The Russian Social Insurance Fund cuts financing prevention of occupational injuries and
d iseases (up to 20 percent of the insurance premium paid in the previous year) by the
amount of insurance indemnities to those injured at work. Thus, indirect financial losses of
the enterprise increase by the same amount.
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If an enterprise has no less than 30 percent of its workplaces certified on the basis of
working conditions, holds compulsory medical check-ups and has the accident rat e in any
report year l ower than the average one for the respective industry in Russia, it may get an
insurance premium discount of up to 40 percent from the Social Insurance Fund in the
following year. However, if the accident rate at the enterprise is higher than the average
one for the respective industry, it will get no discount and its accident-related indirect losses
will increase by the amount of up to 40 percent of the insurance premium.
To prevent m eans to protect and save!
A combination of insurance and prevention is the best way to protect workers
and save money
Remember!
Step one: Find out what can cause an accident at work (the m ost objective way to find it out is to certify
workplaces on the basis of working conditions and assess risks).
Step two: Identify workers who might be affected by an accident at work.
Step three: D ecide what should be done to prevent any possible accidents and how it can be done.
Step four: Act in accordance with your plan.
Step five: Occasionally check if your actions are efficient.
If necessary, seek assistance from:
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Workers of your enterprise - very often they know the simplest solution to the problem;
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Your Safety and Health Committee (Commission), authorized persons in charge of occupational
safety and health, a primary trade union organization or any other representative body of your
workers;
Remember!
Prevention of accidents and occupational diseases reduces your costs!
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Executive labour authority of the respective Russian Federatio n constituency;
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Local authorities (with respective depar tments and OSH specialists);
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OSH educational and/or service centres;
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The Internet, there are a lot of web-sites devoted to safety and health in vario us branches.
The Russian Gove rnmental Information OSH System (RISOT) r isot.safework.ru
The Internet-Based Virtual Academy of Safe Work - www.safework.ru
ILO Safework Library - http://base.safework.ru/safework
Remember!
Reduce these costs now to have a prosperous business in the future!
The only right way to accurately know your costs is to calculate them. Detailed meth ods and
ex amples of how to calculate your costs are given in book
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(Occupational Safety and Health and Business). Its electronic co py is available at
ilonw.safework.ru.
It is easy to quickly calculate costs and losses for an individual accident by means of a cost
calculator.
Remember!
Costs and losses of your enterprise should be c ompared against other figures of
financial and economic activity, such as current expenditures, annual turnover or
the amount of additional work to be done to compensate for costs and losses
resulted f rom accidents.
Such an analysis will let you estimate your actual accident-related losses.
To calculate your accident-related losses fill in the form that gives an overview of the key items of
d irect and indirect costs. Every specific accident may require additional cost items. Please add them
to the Other section.
Costs and Losses
Time, Costs, Total,
h RUR/h RUR
Immediate costs and losses
Wage of the worker on the day of the occupational injury
Transporting injured person to hospital or home
Lost profits of the enterprise
Other
Costs and losses related to disruption of production process
Wages of downtime workers
Restoring safe working conditions on the site of the accident
Lost profits of the enterprise
Other
Damage resulting from broken equipment, tools, etc.
Damage resulting from destroyed, damaged materials, raw
equipment and tools
Overtime pay to workers substituting for the in jured within his incapacity
for labour
Wage of the substitute worker
Providing appropriate working conditions to the substitute worker
Other
Damage to the enterprise resulting f rom damaged equipment,
tools, raw materials, end prod ucts, buildings and structures
p roducts, semi-products, etc
Reorganization of production process
Lease of equipment and tools for the time out of own
Accident investigation
Off-schedule instructions to w orkers
Eliminating causes of the accident
Legal expenses and solicitors' fees
Other
Implementation of decisions made by investigatio n commission
Treatment and rehab of the injured
Me dical services, treatment, m edicines
Sick leave p ayment
Retraining of the injured
Other
To be deducted from a total of costs and losses
Wage not paid to the injured
Total:
You can also use an electronic calculator at www.ilonw.safework.ru
Tips:
‡
Some items in the form may be irrelevant for a specific accident or may become known later.
You may enter both accurate and preliminary figures (estimates). Even in this case you will get
an idea of your actual costs and losses.
Fix the facts and appro ximate costs shortly after the accident.
‡
The workers need to be motivated to report on all accidents and incidents at work. The more
information you have, the more accurate your estimates will be and the more comprehensive
picture you will have.
The leaflet is prepared within the project by the ILD Subregional Office for Eastern Europe and Central
Asia IL0/RUS/M02/FIN-NW Russia Improved Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) System in
Northwestern Russia.
Web-site ilonw.safework.ru.
The leaflet and adapted methods to estimate accident-related cost s were prepared in contact
with:
- Labour and Social Protection Committee of the Leningrad Region;
- Non-governmental organization OSH Research Institute under the Moscow State Social
University.
The leaflet is based on the documents of the British Health S. Safety Executive / Commission (SHE)
www.hse.gov.uk
For more information visit the ILO Subregional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia web-site at
www.ilo.ru.
ISBN: 978-92-2-419745-1
ISBN: 978-92-2-419746-8 (web, pdf)