Barbados

Organization responsible for the statistics

Labour Department, Ministry of Labour.

Source

Notification of occupational injuries by employers to the Labour Department under the Accident and Occupational Disease (Notification) Act, Chapter 338.

Periodicity

Yearly.

Coverage

Persons:

Employees.

Economic activities:

All economic activities and sectors.

Geographic areas:

Whole country.

Establishments:

All sizes and types of establishments.

Types of occupational accidents covered

Reported injuries due to all types of occupational accidents, which result in workers being off work for three days or more.

Concepts and definitions

(Source: Accident and Occupational Disease (Notification) Act, Chapter 338).

Occupational accident:

an unplanned event which occurs in the execution of one's duties and results in injury to a person or death.

Factory accident:

An accident which occurs in a factory undertaking. A factory is defined by the Factories Act, Chapter 347, as any premises in which there is the making, formulating, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing, cleaning, washing, polishing, breaking up, demolition or adaptation for the sale of any article or part thereof.

Minimum period of absence from work: three days.

Maximum period for death to be considered a fatal occupational injury: not available.

Classifications

(a) fatal or non-fatal accidents;

(b) extent of disability:

not relevant;

(c) economic activity:

according to a classification scheme equivalent to the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities, Revision 2, at the major division level, but with sugar cultivation and manufacturing shown separately;

(d) occupation:

not relevant;

(e) type of injury:

nature of injury and part of body injured: lacerations, punctures, back and chest injuries, eye injuries, head injuries, minor injuries to legs, minor injuries to arms, abdominal injuries, burns, electric shock, sprains and strains, ear injuries, broken bones and fractures, amputations or loss of joints, miscellaneous;

(f) cause of accident:

fire, transmission machinery, lifting (non-power), operative, stepping on, struck by object, falls of person, striking against, struck by falling body or object, hot or corrosive substance, caught between, slips and slides, transport, use of hand tools, toxic substances, handling objects without machinery, miscellaneous;

(g) duration of absence from work:

not relevant;

(h) characteristics of workers:

sex;

(i) characteristics of accidents:

not relevant;

(j) characteristics of employers or workplaces:

type of operation (factory or non-factory).

Estimates

Total number of persons injured.

Frequency rates of injuries (fatal and non-fatal):

rates per 1,000,000 hours worked, calculated as:

( Total number of persons injured / Total number of hours worked ) x 1,000,000

where the total number of hours worked is estimated as follows: estimated number of employees in the group x 40 x 50 (assuming that each employee works forty hours per week and fifty weeks per year).

Incidence rates of injuries (fatal and non-fatal):

rates per 1,000 persons exposed to risk, calculated as:

( Total number of persons injured / Average number of workers exposed to risk during the same period ) x 1,000

Documentation

The following tables are published:

Bibliographic references:

The data are published in:

Labour Department: Labour Department Annual Report (Bridgetown).

Ministry of Labour, Consumer Affairs and the Environment: Labour Market Information Newsletter (Bridgetown, quarterly).

Data published by ILO:

The following data are furnished regularly to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, relating to reported injuries according to major division of economic activity: number of persons fatally injured, number of persons injured with lost workdays, total of these two groups; rates of fatal injuries. The number of persons at risk (total number of all persons employed) is also supplied and stored in the LABORSTA database.

Additional information

Statistics on claims received for employment injury and claims allowed are compiled by the National Insurance Department. Data for each quarter and year are published in:

Ministry of Labour, Consumer Affairs and the Environment: Labour Market Information Newsletter (Bridgetown, quarterly).

The following series are available: