“Cooperative labor-management relations reduces occupational accidents”

OSHRI announces a study『Labor-Management Cooperation and Occupational Accidents』

More reliable and cooperative relations of labor-management lower the accident rate

April 9, 2014

A study showed that reliable and cooperative relations between the labor and management contribute to reducing the rate of occupational accidents.

Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute (OSHRI), an affiliated organization of KOSHA headed by president Baek Hun-ki, conducted a study on the labor-management relations and their effects on occupational accidents through 『Labor-Management Cooperation and Occupational Accidents』.

According to the study, a business which is reliable and cooperative when it comes to the labor-management relations shows lower rate of occupational accidents than one which is not. The difference of the accident rate in the manufacturing industry is 0.54%p and 1.19%p in the construction industry.

* Accident rate according to the labor-management relations
(manufacturing and construction industries)

In addition, research and analysis on “the correlation of accident prevention activities and labor-management relations” and “the correlation of safety and health management system and accident rate” were conducted in the study.

When it comes to “the correlation of accident prevention activities and the labor-management relations,” researchers scored the cooperation level of labor-management relations on a scale of 1 to 5 and studied on what impact does the relations have on accident prevention activities. To figure out “the correlation of safety and health management system and accident rate,” they analyzed the impact of safety and health activities performed by management class on occupational accident rate. 

In terms of “the correlation of accident prevention activities and the labor-management relations,” a manufacturing business with high level of labor-management cooperation shows high level of accident prevention activities (3.86). In contrast, another business with low level of labor-management cooperation shows low level of accident prevention activities (3.05). Same goes for the construction industry proving that the more cooperative labor-management relations are, the higher level of safety and health activities is.

*Level of accident prevention activities by level of labor-management cooperation
 (manufacturing and construction industries)

The level of labor-management cooperation includes presentation and acceptance of opinions, reliability, and how much do the labor and management cooperate each other.

On the other hand, researchers analyzed how much do the safety and health activities affect occupational accidents targeting the businesses where accidents occurred, to figure out “the correlation of safety and health management system and accident rate.”

“Safety and health management” refers to systematic OSH activities reflecting the issues of OSH in the business activities. According to the study, the average accident rate of the group which is the highest in safety and health management activities is 3.36% and 4.96% in the manufacturing and construction industries respectively. Those figures are less than half of the accident rate of the group which is the lowest in the activities.

* Correlations between accident rate and safety and health management activities (manufacturing and consecution industries)

OSHRI found in their study,『Labor Management Cooperation and Occupational Accidents』, that the more cooperative the labor and management relations are, the higher the accident prevention activities are. Active accident prevention activities of employers also reduce the accident rate.

In line with this, researchers cited various foreign accident cases in the study. They are: the accident prevention activities of trade union in chemicals factories in Europe and the United Automobile Workers (UAW) in the U.S.; and the active occupational accident activities of trade unions in the Japanese National Railways, the supermarket industry, and electric device manufacturing factories.

In the study, analyses were carried out targeting 3,000 manufacturing workplaces and 1,000 construction workplaces based on the report from『the trend of occupational safety and health (OSH)』which had been conducted for 3 months from June to September of 2012.

For more detailed information, visit the website of OSHRI (http://oshri.kosha.or.kr) and search “occupational accidents” in the search box of Research Project.

Dr. Jo Heum-hak, a senior researcher of the study from OSHRI said, “This study which is almost the first of its kind in Korea will suggests the correlation between the trade union and OSH activities.” He added, “I’m positive this study will prove that how actively workers participate in the OSH activities can contribute to reducing the occupational accidents.”