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Significant under-reporting
Each year, 44,000 occupational injuries entailing at least one day’s absence are recorded by the Labour Inspection department. But the authors of a report published by the LO trade union estimate that the number of injuries each year is closer to 100,000. Although they have an obligation to do so, employers apparently do not report most of the injuries occurring in their company. The rate of under-reporting is estimated at 56%.
The authors of the report emphasize the harmful consequences of this under-reporting. If the authorities and companies are not thoroughly informed of the place and conditions of occurrence of accidents, it is impossible to suitably target prevention measures.
Few employees compensated
As a consequence of this under-reporting, 5,000 employees suffering an occupational injury and entitled to receive compensation are apparently not compensated. And yet some of them will suffer after-effects all their lives.
Recommendations
The authors of the report propose reinforcing the regulations to provide employers and family doctors with an incentive to report accidents. They also propose that hospital emergency wards be now also required to report accidents at work to the Labour Inspectors, which is not the case at present.
Read the Statistical Review of Occupational Injuries – Denmark, 2004-2010 data, published by Eurogip
