Nearly three million workers die every year due to work-related accidents and diseases, an increase of more than 5 per cent compared to 2015, according to a new study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The toll underscores the persistent challenges in safeguarding the health and safety of workers, globally.

Most of these work-related fatalities, totalling 2.6 million deaths, stem from work-related diseases. Work accidents account for an additional 330,000 deaths, according to the analysis. 

Key points of the report:

• Despite significant progress in Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) over the years, the reality remains that workers continue to suffer from work-related injuries and diseases, with some even losing their lives, due to exposure to a range of occupational hazards and risks.

• These include risks to physical safety, biological hazards, chemicals and hazardous substances and ergonomic and psychosocial hazards.

• Over 395 million workers worldwide sustained a non-fatal work injury.

• Around 2.93 million workers died as a result of work-related factors, an increase of more than 12 per cent compared to 2000.

• The large majority of these work-related deaths, 2.6 million, were attributed to work-related diseases, while work accidents resulted in 330,000 deaths. 

• The diseases that caused most work-related deaths were circulatory diseases, malignant neoplasms and respiratory diseases. Together, these three categories contributed to almost three-quarters of total work-related mortality.

• Among the 20 occupational risk factors considered, the one with the largest number of attributable deaths in 2016 was exposure to long working hours (≥55 hours per week), which killed almost 745,000 people, followed by exposure to occupational particulate matter, gases and fumes with over 450,000 associated deaths, and thirdly occupational injuries with over 363,000 deaths. 

• The sizeable increase in the absolute number of work-related fatalities is influenced by several factors, which may relate to an aggravation in terms of unprotected exposures to occupational risks, as well as to socio-demographic changes. For example, the global labour force increased by 26 per cent between 2000 and 2019, from 2.75 billion to 3.46 billion

• Work-related deaths are unequally distributed, with the male mortality rate (108.3 per 100,000 in the labour force) being significantly higher than the female rate (48.4 per 100,000). 

• In terms of regional distribution, Asia and the Pacific holds the highest share, contributing to almost 63 per cent of global work-related mortality.

• Working in hazardous sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining, construction, and manufacturing continues to represent the main risk to workers’ lives and well-being. 

• Each year, 200,000 fatal injuries occur in these sectors, representing 60 per cent of all fatal occupational injuries.

• Looking at the fatal occupational injury rate, the mining and quarrying, construction, and utilities sectors are the three most hazardous sectors globally.

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