Occupational accidents in the Finnish local government sector: Utilisation of national statistics

Abstract

Occupational accidents in the Finnish local government sector in 2004 are analysed by gender, age and occupation class in order to identify particular risk groups. The accident data are compared with data concerning the number of employees, using frequency distributions and accident incidence rates. The possibilities of providing occupation class-specific accident incidence rates are also discussed. According to the results, commuting accidents are more common and severe in the local government sector than in general in Finland. In the local public sector occupational accidents more often involved women than men. Compared to other age groups and occupational classes, occupational accidents are more common in the age band of 45–54 and in the occupational class of medical and nursing work. However, compared to the employees' data, men and younger employees had an increased workplace accident risk, while women and older employees had an increased risk of commuting accidents. The highest accident incidence rate was in farming and animal husbandry work. Currently, the calculation of occupation class-specific accident incidence rates is difficult. Improving the consistency of the occupation classifications used in the various data sources would facilitate more reliable calculation of rates.

Keywords:

• occupational safety
• accident
• statistics
• local government
• municipalities

Acknowledgements

The cooperation of the representatives of the funding organisations from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions and the Centre for Occupational Safety is gratefully acknowledged. Appreciation is also given to the help provided by the Commission for Local Authority Employers, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors and Statistics Finland. This work was also supported by the Finnish graduate school on User Centered Information Technology (UCIT). The author wishes to thank Marileena Koskela, M.Sc. (Econ, Eng) and Sanna Nenonen, M.Sc. (Eng, Stat.) for their valuable comments on the draft manuscript. The anonymous reviewers are also acknowledged for their useful comments.