830 workplace accidents in Ireland during 2011
04 May 2012
To mark World Day for Health & Safety at Work, InjuriesBoard.ie has published a review of workplace accidents in 2011 that shows compensation totalling €22.5million was awarded in respect of 830 personal injury workplace claims nationally.
Patricia Byron, chief executive of InjuriesBoard.ie, said the fall in workplace accidents in Ireland was due to the contracting workforce
This compares with €25.1million and 889 awards respectively in 2010.
Accidents in the workplace accounted for 8.4 per cent of all personal injury awards in 2011, compared to 11 per cent of all awards in 2010.
Patricia Byron, chief executive of InjuriesBoard.ie, said: “While our figures point to a downward trend in the number of claims for workplace accidents, the main driver for this is a contracting workforce rather than any notable advances in workplace health and safety programmes.
“The manufacturing and production sectors accounted for the majority of claims last year with slips, trips and falls, defective equipment and poor lifting and handling of goods the most common accidents. We are continually surprised by the volume of such foreseeable and preventable claims. The Injuries Board model has significantly driven down the cost of processing claims in recent years but the simple fact remains that its far more cost effective to prevent an accident happening in the first place than to deal with the consequences afterwards”, concluded Ms Byron.
Key findings of the review include the fact that men are twice as likely as women to receive an award for a workplace accident - accounting for 70% of all awards (2010: 75%) versus 30% of awards to women (2010: 25%). However, the number of women receiving awards has increased by five per cent due to their increased presence in the workforce during the recession.