Work-related Injury CLAIMS - October 2006

31 October 2006

Background

This report informs you about work-related injury claims that occurred in the 2005 year as measured at 31 March 2006. The injury statistics were released by Statistics New Zealand on 31 October 2006 and were accompanied by final figures for the 2004 year. The data relates solely to claims for work-related injury received by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). All figures in the report are provisional as claims for injuries that occurred in 2005 can still be updated and filed. Final figures (as at March 2007) will be released in October 2007.

This 2005 release of provisional work-related claim injury statistics uses a new processing system to generate statistics. In the switch to the new system, all previously released tables were reviewed. This release includes new key figures for 2002-2004. These years have been recalculated with the new processing system, which provides a more efficient method of removing duplicate records.

Key points

Fatalities have increased slightly...

By the end of March 2006, there were 86 claims for work-related fatal injuries¹ that occurred in 2005. This is up 15 from the corresponding provisional (and comparable) figure in 2004. This figure is provisional and is expected to increase as workers who have been seriously injured may fail to recover from their injuries. Nonetheless, the number of fatalities between 2002 and 2004 (final figures) has remained relatively steady with 95 recorded in 2002, 93 in 2003, and 94 in 2004.

The occupational groups which recorded the most claims for fatal injuries were plant and machine operators and assemblers with 16 claims and agriculture and fisheries workers with 12 claims.

...and growth in the number of claims is slower than employment growth

The provisional number of claims for work-related injury was 242,600 in 2005, which is down 100, from the corresponding provisional figure in 2004. When compared to employment growth of 2.8% in the year to December 2005, it shows the incidence rate² for claims to ACC has decreased. In 2005 there were 132 claims per 1,000 full time equivalent employees (FTEs). The incidence rate for ACC claims has been trending downwards over the last four years.

...and males continue to dominate work-related injury claims

In 2005, the incidence rate for males was 170 claims per 1,000 male FTEs compared with 81 claims per 1,000 female FTEs (Figure 1). This indicates that males are twice as likely to have accepted a claim for a work-related injury in 2005 than females.

Fig 1: Claims per 1,000 FTEs employed, 2005

Data table for Fig 1

Males account for 74% of all work-related injury claims. This percentage has remained the same between 2001 and 2005. Of the 86 claims for fatal injuries, nearly all were in relation to male workers. This reflects the male predominance in more relatively unsafe occupations.

Among males, workers aged 65 years and over had the highest incidence rate with 268 claims per 1,000 FTEs, although they make up only 3% of all work-related claims for males due to relatively low total numbers of workers. Those aged 15-24 had the second highest incidence rate with 221 claims per 1,000 FTEs. Among females, age differences in the incidence rate were less pronounced.

Claims by ethnicity

Europeans accounted for 70% of all claims for work-related injuries, followed by Maori (13%) and Pacific Peoples (5%). Maori workers had the highest incidence rate of work-related injury with 182 claims per 1,000 FTEs compared with 158 claims per 1,000 FTEs for Pacific Peoples and 119 claims per 1,000 FTEs for Europeans. The incidence rates by ethnicity have remained largely consistent in the four years to 2005.

The difference in incidence rates by ethnicity most likely reflects the high proportion of Maori and Pacific Peoples who are employed in occupational groups with a higher incidence of work-related injury³ .

Claims by region

Bay of Plenty and Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay had the highest incidence rates with 197 and 180 claims per 1,000 FTEs, respectively. The lowest rate was measured in the Wellington region with only 74 claims per 1,000 FTE’s. This compares with an average of 132 per 1,000 FTEs for New Zealand as a whole. As with ethnicity, these figures most likely vary due to the different industry sectors and occupations across regions.

Claims by industry

The manufacturing industry had the highest number of claims in 2005 with 45,900, representing 19% of all claims made for work-related injuries. However, the mining industry had the highest incidence rate, with 198 claims per 1,000 FTEs. It was followed closely by agriculture, forestry and fishing (190 claims per 1,000 FTEs), manufacturing (169 claims per 1,000 FTE) and construction (167 claims per 1,000 FTE).

The lowest incidence rate was for the finance and insurance industry which had only 22 claims per 1,000 FTEs. The variation in incidence rates by industry underlies many of the differences observed for incidence rates by ethnicity, region, age and sex. The distribution of claims by industry has remained relatively constant over the past three years.

Table 1: Claims for Work-related Injuries by Industry, 2005.

Industry	Total claims (000s)	Incidence rate (claims per 1000 FTEs)
Mining	1.1	198
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing	24.5	190
Manufacturing	45.9	169
Construction	25.6	167
Electricity, gas and water supply	1.1	135
Cultural and recreation services	5.8	135
Transport and storage	9.1	111
Retail trade	17.6	83
Wholesale trade	8.4	81
Communication services	2.3	80
Personal and other services	66.6	80
Accommodation, cafes and restaurants	5.8	75
Property and business services	13.2	63
Health and community services	9.5	62
Govt. administration and defence	3.9	50
Education	6.8	49
Finance and insurance	1.3	22
Total	242.6	132

Source: Claims for Work-Related Injuries, Statistics New Zealand

Time away from the labour force

90% of all persons who claimed for a work-related injury in 2005 spent no time away from the labour force. A further 4% returned within a month and less than 1% did not return within six months.

Costs of work-related injuries

Claims for work-related injuries occurring in 2005 had incurred costs of $195.6 million to ACC by the end of March 2006. The average cost of claims for work-related injuries in 2005 was $805 dollars. However, this figure is driven up by large claims and the data shows 84% of claims cost ACC $500 or less.

Endnotes

1 These are claims made to ACC for work-related death. They are recorded by the year of the injury rather than the date of death. It should be noted that not all work-related fatalities result in a claim to ACC and so these figures do not fully portray the number of deaths from work-related injuries.

2 The incidence rate equals the number of injury claims per 1,000 full-time equivalents (FTEs).

3 For the three occupational groups with the highest incidence rates of work-related injury (Elementary Occupations, Plant and Machine Operators and Assemblers, and Agriculture and Fishery Workers) Household Labour Force Survey data shows that in the year to December 2005, 41% of Pacific Peoples and 36% of Maori were employed in these occupational groups compared to 20% of Europeans.