Council of Labor Affairs sets target of 20% fewer job-related accidents

This article was written by June Tsai and published by the Taiwan Journal on March 3, 2006. It reports that the Council of Labor Affairs in Taiwan recently declared its plan to reduce occupational accidents by 20 percent within two years. This translates into 700 fewer disabling accidents and 60 fewer fatal accidents, and a death rate of about 35 per million workers, in the year 2008.

The plan focuses primarily on the eight most common types of accidents resulting from failure to observe safety standards, which account for 72 percent of all accidents and have caused an average of more than 2,000 disabilities and almost 200 deaths annually over the past five years. These eight types of accidents include being injured by machinery, being struck by flying or falling objects, being injured by fixed objects that are not adequately shielded, falls, collisions, and electric shocks.

Official statistics show that industrial accidents occurring in industrial environments account for 63 percent of all accidents. In 2005, the rate of fatal job-related accidents was 45 deaths per million workers. Although this was down from 77 deaths per million in 2000, it was considerably higher than Japan's rate of 26 per million, not to mention Britain's 7 per million.

Statistics also show that 75 percent of all accidents result from unsafe behavior of workers, who typically have not received accident-prevention training from their employers. The remaining 25 percent is caused by unsafe equipment.

Taiwan's Industrial Safety and Health Association is a non-profit organization established in 1960. The organization's goal is to prevent occupational accidents by doing research and offering guidance and assistance to businesses. According to representatives from the organization, about 75 percent of occupational accidents in Taiwan occur in small and medium-sized businesses, which make up 97.8 percent of Taiwanese businesses and employ nearly 78 percent of the work force. This is the sector "where occupational safety is more likely to be compromised due to lack of manpower and skill in conducting training and implementing safety measures", representatives from the organization said.