The Cost of Workplace Fatalities.
A total of 147 workers were killed at work in Great Britain in 2018/19. Although this represents an increase of 6 fatalities from 2017/18, the average over the last 5 years is 142 per year.
That is 142 people each year, that go to work and do not come home again.
Statistics from HSE show that the total cost of workplace fatalities in 2016 was £200 million and that year there were 142 workplace fatalities in the UK. This equates to £1.408 million per fatality.
That year 38 construction workers were killed which equates to 26.76% of the total number. In purely monetary terms this equates to over £53.5 million. However grim and shocking fatalities are they are still rare events so it can be difficult for organisations and individuals to conceptualise the risk of fatal injuries as we always seem to perceive that they ‘happen to someone else, on someone else’s site’.
“But what about non-fatal injuries? It could be argued that, if asked, most people would not have witnessed or been involved in a fatal accident at work. However, if we changed the question to have you seen anyone taken to hospital from work then the answer may well be that most people have seen someone taken to hospital from work.
“With this in mind let’s look at the statistics for injuries alone. Estimates from the Labour Force Survey in 2017-18 identify over 555,000 people who sustained injuries at work. From this number, over 135,000 people required at least seven days off work. In the same period there were 58,000 non-fatal injuries to construction workers (LFS, 2018). This equates to a rate of around 2,620 injured people per 100,000 workers. This is 50% higher than the national average for all industries. The estimated cost of all injuries in the construction sector (fatal and non-fatal) is around £490 million per year (HSE 2018). In that year there were 30 fatalities in the construction industry. Assuming the cost per fatality has remained the same this equates to £44.4 million; leaving the costs for non-fatal injures running at £445.6 Million or £7,682 per injury. But hold on, most of the injuries we see are minor cuts and bruises! How can this be correct?? Well first off these are averages, secondly they look as the costs to society as a whole not just to the industry. As an example, in 2002 it cost around £33.00 (HSC 2002) for a first aider to give another worker first aid only and then to fill out the relevant paperwork (first aider lost time etc.). The Department of Health states that as of 2018 it costs around £7.00 per call to 999, £233.00 for an ambulance to take a person to A&E, over £140.00 for an A&E assessment and £400.00 per day for a hospital bed without treatment, costs of treating a minor wound or sprain to the NHS is around £680.00. As you can see these costs are adding up and this has not yet looked at the costs to the business or the individual.
Follow your instincts
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