Occupational Safety and Health

• In 1998, a total of 5,298 work-related accidents were reported by 280 establishments to the DoLE’s Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC).

• Agriculture ranked with the highest number of accidents with 2,049 cases. Manufacturing came second with 1,659 cases. They were concentrated in food (540), textiles (278), non-metallic mineral (121), wood (110) and fabricated metal (100) This was followed by construction with 1,123 cases.

• A total of 123,125 workers were involved in these accidents. This means that one out of 23 workers in the reporting establishments suffered work injuries in 1998. The biggest number of workers came from construction with 32,403 (26.3 percent) workers followed by manufacturing with 32,063 (26 percent) workers.

• The disabling injuries in 1998 incurred some 144,600 days lost and estimated total amount of P10.3-million economic loss categorized as: compensation cost, P7,488,094.33; medical cost, P1,310,681.2; and burial cost, P1,437,573.00. It was noted that fatalities/deaths of workers incurred the highest economic loss amounting to P8 million followed by Temporary Total Disability with P2 million. Amount incurred by medical treatment/first aid cases was estimated at P514,040.25

• Common accident victims were working as production and related workers, transport equipment operators and laborers, male, married workers aged 26-30, with one to five years in service in the company assigned in the first shift.

Work-Alert Cases:

• In 1999, data showed that the construction industry ranked highest in number of accident cases with 78 cases, followed by manufacturing with 20 cases and services with 8 cases.

• The 78 incidents involved 52 fatalities and 21 injured workers.

• Common types of accidents were:

• Falls - 11 cases
• Struck or hit by falling objects/materials - 6 cases
• Electrocution - 4 cases
• Collapse of structure/excavation - 2 cases
• Suffocation - 1 case

From: The Occupational Safety and Health Center-Department of Labor and Employment website; accessed May 8, 2009