Croatia

Organization responsible for the statistics

Collection: Ministry of Work and Welfare, Labour Inspectorate; Pensions and Disabilities Fund; and Croatian Institute for Health Insurance.

Compilation: Ministry of Work and Welfare, Labour Inspectorate; Pensions and Disabilities Fund; Croatian Institute for Health Insurance; and Croatian National Institute of Public Health.

Publication: Central Bureau of Statistics.

Periodicity

Annual.

Source

Records of compensation paid for occupational injuries by the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance and the Pensions and Disabilities Fund.

Objectives and users

Major users:

Labour Inspectorate, insurance companies.

Coverage

Workers:

All persons employed.

In 1997 1,443,913 workers were employed.

Economic activities:

All economic activities and sectors.

Geographic areas:

Whole country.

Persons injured while working outside the territory are included, if employed by Croatian firms or institutions. All persons involved in occupational accidents while within the country are included, even if they are normally resident outside the country.

Establishments:

All types and sizes of establishments.

Types of occupational accidents covered

The statistics cover compensated injuries due to all types of occupational accidents, including commuting accidents.

Data on occupational diseases are compiled and published separately.

Concepts and definitions

(Source: Pensions and Disability Insurance Law, 1983).

Work injury:

an insured person's injury which is due to the immediate mechanical, physical or chemical action of short duration and injuries caused by rapid body posture changes, sudden loads on the body or other sudden change in the physiological condition of the body, provided there is a causal relationship between such injuries and the execution of a certain work activity. An illness in an insured person that arises directly or exclusively from an accident or an act of God intervening during the execution of the duties of the job or related to the job is also considered to be a work injury. Also considered as work injuries are those sustained by the insured person on his regular route while commuting between his home and place of work, and those sustained on business trips while carrying out official work assignments.

Fatal work injury:

an injury which causes the person's death at the place of the accident or on the way to a medical institution for the purpose of medical care.

Temporary incapacity to work:

an employee's incapacity to carry out the duties of his job because of illness or injury.

Permanent incapacity to work or permanent disability:

arises when an employee's capacity to carry out the duties of his job has been lost or reduced as a result of a disease, off-the-job injury, on-the-job injury or occupational disease, on condition that it is impossible to remedy either by treatment or medical rehabilitation measures.

Minimum period of absence from work: none.

Maximum period for death to be considered a fatal occupational injury: immediately (the person must have died either at the place of the accident or on the way to the medical institution).

Types of information compiled

(a) personal characteristics of workers injured: sex, age, occupation, number of years in job;

(b) amount of worktime lost;

(c) characteristics of accidents: time of day, day of week, type of accident, work activity at the moment of the accident, event which led to the accident, location, total number of persons injured;

(d) characteristics of injuries: part of body injured, type of injury or illness, extent of disability, cause of injury;

(e) characteristics of employers or workplaces: location; economic activity.

Measurement of worktime lost

Worktime lost is measured in workdays (i.e. excluding Sundays), for all occupational injuries.

It is calculated as the number of days lost because of sick leave after the injury itself, as well as lost workdays due to subsequent deterioration of health or new sick leave, up to the time when the injured person has recovered and returned to work or retired.

Temporary absences from work for medical treatment are not counted as worktime lost.

Classifications

(a) fatal or non-fatal accidents;

(b) extent of disability:

none;

(c) economic activity:

according to the standard classification of economic activities;

(d) occupation;

(e) type of injury:

nature of injury: according to the four-digit level of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10);

(f) cause of accident:

material agency: facilities, engines and devices (19 groups), means of transport (five groups), items of equipment (12 groups), work process dependent sources (ten groups), working environment (nine groups), other sources (five groups), sources other than those given in above, causative agents unclassified for lack of necessary information;

cause of injury: this assumes the existence of various factors leading to the injury and being present in man himself, in his working conditions, or in his living conditions: malfunctioning of machines and other devices, except when a malfunction has been found in the electric part of a device; disorders in a normal and technological process; hand tool malfunctions, also of mechanically driven tools; faulty electric appliances, also faulty machines and hand tools; defective work spaces and worksites, not built, equipped or maintained to standard; working environment; space jams, especially passages for people; faulty routes for transportation; lack of protective devices, or their damage, and construction faults; lack of or inadequate or faulty personal means of protection; act of God; irrational or unreliable manner of working of an individual; poor work organization; tiredness, excessive working hours or overtime work; lack of overall control, especially in the types of work which should be carried out under supervision; lack of adequate occupational training; lack of corresponding technical experience; breaking the safety regulations; acute and chronic diseases; tiredness due to journey to or from work; worker's personal attitude to his work; worries and various disturbances; mental features and deficiencies; other reasons; unknown;

(g) duration of absence from work:

none;

(h) characteristics of workers;

(i) characteristics of accidents:

course of accident: how the accident happened: fall of worker; object falling on worker; worker-object collision; trapped or crushed; excessive physical exertion or inappropriate movements by the worker; exposure; contact with an object charged with an electric current; influence of deleterious substances or radiation on the worker; other modes of occupational injury not included above, and those which cannot be classified elsewhere due to lack of information;

(j) characteristics of employers or workplaces.

Crossclassifications:

Reference period

Year.

An injury is included in the statistics for the period (year) in which a claim regarding the accident was submitted to the relevant authority.

Worktime lost in included in the statistics for each of the periods (years) in which worktime was lost because of the injury.

Estimates

Total number of persons injured.

Rates of fatal injuries and non-fatal injuries in relation to total employment.

Rates of fatal injuries and non-fatal injuries in relation to all work injuries.

Historical background of the series

The statistics were first compiled in 1977.

Documentation

Series available:

The following tables are published:

Bibliographic references:

The data are published in:

Central Bureau of Statistics: Statistical Yearbook.

Methodological information about the statistics is published in the Health Record Schemes Law (Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia 53/91).

Not all the data are published. Data can be made available on request, in printed form or on magnetic tape.

Data published by ILO:

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

Confidentiality:

There are no restrictions on the publication or release of data.

International standards

The current international standards and guidelines were followed wherever possible when the statistical system was designed.

The representative organizations of employers and workers and other users were consulted when the statistical system was designed.

Method of data collection

Legislation:

Health Insurance Act of 1993 (revised 1997).

All occupational injuries, including commuting accidents, are covered by the compensation scheme.

Notifications of occupational injuries should be submitted within 72 hours of the accident.

Reporting:

The injured person reports the injury to his employer and physician, and the employer (firm, institution, private employer, etc.) submits the notification to the health insurance company, which then forwarded to the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance (CIHI). The CIHI sends it on to the Croatian National Institute for Public Health.

A standard form with detailed instructions (Form ER-8 issued by the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance) is used for the notification.

The form consists of seven sections. Sections I to V are filled out by the employer of the person who was injured, at the time of the accident. If the injury was incurred on the job, the employer completes these sections on the basis of the facts established during an investigation. If the injury was incurred during commuting or on a business trip, they are completed on the basis of a statement by the injured person or a witness.

Section VI is completed by a labour inspector, if the investigation was carried out before the form was submitted. If he carries out the investigation after the form is submitted to the physician who examined the injured person, and if the investigation reveals facts which are different from those on the form, he reports these facts to the appropriate institute of public health. Section VII is completed by the physician.

Data reported:

The form consists of the following:
  1. information about the employer: title, economic activity code, address;
  2. information about the accident: date, day and time of the accident; place where the accident happened (on the job, in which case, the site; on the regular route between home and work; on business trip or other); number of fatalities either at the site or on the way to a medical institution; total number of persons injured in the accident, including fatalities; whether a similar accident has happened at the same place and job; source of injury (material, object, substance, etc. which gave immediate rise to injury); cause of injury (factors leading to the injury); course of accident (details of how the accident happened); whether the job has been classified as a high risk job; whether there was an order to use personal work safety appliances;
  3. information about the injured person: name, sex, date and place of birth, place of residence, occupation (stated in as much detail as possible), formal education (highest level of education completed), vocational training (qualification), method of acquiring vocational skills, formal training for present job, whether work safety training was given, work being carried out at the time of the accident, length of service in that work, hours worked on the day of the accident, whether the accident occurred during regular work hours, on overtime or during emergency work, whether he had previously sustained an occupational injury (number of times and date), part of body injured, whether the injury was fatal; insurance base (employed person or trainee);
  4. information about immediate supervisor: name and address;
  5. information about witness (if any): name and address;
  6. work inspector's appraisal of issues relating to the accident;
  7. report by the physician: name and address of doctor; name and address of health institution; person who administered first aid (physician, school nurse, layman, etc.); description of the accident according to the statement by the injured person; nature of the injury; whether afflicted by any other disease (coded according to ICD-10); whether the injured person had any physical or mental deficiencies; approximate expected duration of incapacity to work (in days, up to seven, then in weeks).

Changes planned:

none.