Recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases

The code gives more prominence to the effective use of collected, recorded and notified data for preventive action than to the elaboration of statistics. As such it serves as a useful instrument to the competent authorities in developing systems for recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases. It also provides valuable guidance for joint action by employers and workers and for activities carried out by governments, social security institutions and other organizations aimed at the overall prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. With respect to the relationship between arrangements prescribed under the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121), and those for the recording and notification of data for occupational statistics, the experts opted to omit reference to single and specific systems in the text of the code. Support was voiced in favour of a system which accommodates all information. The report on the meeting indicates very clearly the various problem areas encountered during the deliberations and reflects the reasons for the final wording of the code. An extract from the report is therefore reproduced here with a view to providing clarification and additional guidance to its users.