Nov 2024 International Blog – Global trends in Occupational safety and health
Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2024
The World Risk Poll is the first and only global, nationally representative study of worry about, and harm from, risks to people’s safety. The poll is based on nearly 147,000 interviews conducted by Gallup in 142 countries and territories throughout 2023 and covers places with little to no official data on safety and risks.
The 2024 World Risk Poll provides a unique insight into people’s experiences with, and perceptions of, workplace risks and harms.
Astonishing findings – to us in the affluent West
The report provides eye-opening insights into working conditions in lower income countries — and especially those working in industries with weak health and safety regulation and poor reporting structures (you know who you are – Arinite’s October 2021 blog named The World’s Most Dangerous Countries for Workers!).
For me, some key highlights from the 2024 report:
- 18% of the current global workforce — equating to around 667 million adults — have personally experienced serious harm at work in the past two years.
- Rates of workplace harm are highest in low- and lower-middle-income countries, especially those working in agriculture, fishing, construction and mining.
- Being male, less educated and under the age of 30 are all associated with a heightened risk of workplace harm, although this heightened risk is also linked to the types of work people do.
- Workers are generally not worried about workplace harm until they experience it. Worry levels about workplace harm increase significantly as exposure to it — either by knowing someone harmed or personally experiencing harm — increases.
- People tend to worry less about work relative to their actual harm-experience levels than other risks, such as severe weather events or traffic accidents.
- Globally, only half (51%) of the current workforce who experienced harm at work in the past two years say they reported the incident by telling someone responsible for safety or health at work (such as a supervisor or manager) or health or social services about it.
- Of those currently in the workforce around the world, 62% report having never received occupational safety and health training about risks associated with their work.
- Four in five current workers in lower-middle- (79%) and low-income (78%) countries have never received safety and health training in their jobs.
- People employed full-time by an employer are around twice as likely to have had recent workplace safety training (41%) as those employed part-time (23%).
- Holding other factors equal, there is a significant relationship between safety training and the likelihood of reporting workplace harm. The more recently people have had training, the more likely they are to report workplace harm if they experience it.
- The odds of individuals who have received Occupational Health and Safety training in the past two years reporting harm are significantly higher, by around 3.3 times, than the odds of those who never received training reporting harm.
Some takeaways
The 2024 World Risk Poll gives fascinating insights, and I would recommend reading it in full.
One of the recurring themes seems to be the link between training and health & safety performance.
Training is such an important aspect that regular readers may have noticed this topic as a recurring theme through many of Arinite’s Blogs and webpages.
No-one is born with a health & safety module embedded in their brains and, in the absence of adequate training, will adopt whatever they think to be the most appropriate way of doing a job – even if this means taking uncontrolled risks, and not only failing to raise any concerns, but covering up shortcomings for fear of being ridiculed or penalised.
Not my problem?
You have enough already on your plate to worry about, right? Why should you worry about workers in mostly developing countries, whose conditions you can do nothing about? Or can you?
Arinite’s September 2024 International Blog: How to Improve Safety and Health in Global Supply Chains suggested some ways that companies could influence their upstream suppliers to improve workplace standards – or what we call: “ethical sourcing”.
It’s a thought…
Arinite clients appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment.
Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple.
If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our office +44 (0) 207 947 9581, or type an enquiry to: https://www.arinite.co.uk/contact-us/.
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