Occupational Injury Costs and Alternative Employment in Construction Trades

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dong, Xiuwen S. ; Haile E ; Men Y ; Miller T ; Waehrer GM
• Description:
  OBJECTIVE: To present the costs of fatal and non-fatal days-away-from-work injuries in 50 construction occupations. Our results also provide indirect evidence on the cost exposure of alternative construction workers such as independent contractors, on-call or day labor, contract workers, and temporary workers. METHODS: We combine data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on average annual incidence from 2000 to 2002 with updated per-case costs from an existing cost model for occupational injuries. The Current Population Survey provides data on the percentage of alternative construction workers. RESULTS: Construction laborers and carpenters were the two costliest occupations, with 40% of the industry's injury costs. The 10 costliest construction occupations also have a high percentage of alternative workers. CONCLUSIONS: The construction industry has both a high rate of alternative employment and high costs of work injury. Alternative workers, often lacking workers' compensation, are especially exposed to injury costs. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Workplace
• Keywords:
  Construction Construction-industry Mathematical-models Safety-measures Safety-practices Statistical-analysis Work-environment Work-practices
• ISSN:
  1076-2752
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  49
• Issue:
  11
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20032984
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Med 2007 Nov; 49(11):1218-1227
• Contact Point Address:
  Geetha Waehrer, PhD, Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation (PIRE), 11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900, Calverton, MD 20705
• Email:
  waehrer@pire.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR-The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20040801
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• End Date:
  20090630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:30ab750af0787a429991664c45055b52376f6a5aa6fe5a3e80ecedcc90db18c354e65e77e6c3ef206cad5d9d8f584687538482aeef223569583a70d5d081f474
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/188730/cdc_188730_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 250.39 KB ]