Economy loses RON 52 mln annually due to work accidents

The minimum financial impact on the economy due to work accidents reaches almost RON 52 million, without taking into account the medical treatment, the production delays or the recruitment and training of new employees, an Eurofin company study shows.

This is because Romania is among the top European Union countries with the most fatal accidents in terms of the number of employees affected and has more than 3 times the average number of accidents across the EU, according to data from the European Statistics Institute – Eurostat.

“Our research has been reported by the latest European statistics available in the field, according to which Romania registered a total of 4,424 work-related accidents in 2016. Taking into account the average monthly labor cost, according to data provided by the INS, of RON 3,493/employee, we determined an average of the costs related to sick leave, plus the equivalent of the days of work lost, those related to a minimum number of days of hospitalization, the cost of accident investigation (HR, legal staff , health and safety staff – OSH) and the minimum fine that applies, according to the legislation in force in such situations,” said Daniel Milicescu, Safety and Protection at Work expert.

Costs	Amount
Average monthly labor cost in 2016	RON 3,493/employee
Average sick leave – 15 days – 66,360 days of lost work Read more about EU Finance Ministers set in motion EIB Group Action Plan to further step-up support read more	RON 10,803,484
Average hospitalization 4 days – 4 x 450 lei hospital accommodation / 1 day x 4.424	RON 7,963,200
Costs of labor replacement, overtime	RON 10,803,484
Lawyers costs (calculated for fatal accidents only) – 214 accidents x average of EUR 5.000/ case	RON  4,975,500
Accident investigation costs (HR, legal, SSM) average 10 days x 4.424	RON 8,443,533
Fines (minimum amount) – 2,000 x 4.424	RON 8,848,000
TOTAL AMOUNT	RON 51837,201

The amount would actually be up to nine times higher, according to health and safety specialists.

”We have thus reached a total amount of over 11.5 million euros, without taking into account treatments, medication or surgical interventions, production delays and penalties for delayed deliveries, criminal liability of the employer, the value of the products or materials destroyed, not to lower the morale of the company’s employees – with a direct impact on productivity and quality, the increase in staff turnover or negative publicity of the employer’s brand, which would have been at least 8-9 times higher in these circumstances,” adds Daniel Milicescu.

According to the latest data centralized by the Ministry of Labor and Social Justice, the sectors of the national economy with the most labor accidents are: retail trade, road transport vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, land transport and pipeline transport, building construction, forestry and logging, with the last three categories registering the most deadly accidents.

Bucharest, Brasov, Constanta and Sibiu are the leading counties in this chapter.

Poor legislation

”I think it is time for the Romanian state to come up with concrete solutions for encouraging active policies in OSH because we are still far from a culture of employee protection, a reality confirmed by figures. The legislation now focuses more on paper production and less consistently preventive actions. For a small company, filling in the fiches is not a relevant issue, but for employers with 5,000 employees, it becomes a real problem, ”says Milicescu.

If we also take into account the Emergency Training Sheets, in addition to SSM, there are already 10,000 fiches. Minimum completion time is 45 seconds, resulting in 125 hours. If we take into account a quarterly training schedule (4 trainings/year), we get 500 hours of work/year only to fill in the fiches. Therefore, an employee should work for almost three months of a year only for these papers.

If we take into account a net salary of 3,000 lei, then only the direct salary costs are almost 16,000 lei. In Romania, OSH legislation is not connected with the health insurance system, a company with 0 work accidents, paying the same amount as a company that records such incidents” Milicescu stated.

Eurofin Consult is a Romanian company with over 13 years of experience in occupational health and safety.