IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sls/resrep/0604.html

Five Deaths a Day: Workplace Fatalities in Canada, 1993-2005

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Sharpe
  • Jill Hardt

Abstract

According to data collected by the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, 1,097 workplace fatalities were recorded in Canada in 2005, up from 758 in 1993. As Canadians work on average 230 days per year, this means that there were nearly five work-related deaths per work day in this country. The objective of this study is to provide a detailed analysis of the characteristics of persons who die on the job and the reasons they die, and to gain a better understanding of developments over time in this key indicator of job quality and labour market well-being. The study is divided into four main sections. The first section provides a comprehensive examination of workplace fatalities in Canada over the 1993-2005 period. The second section of the study provides an international perspective on workplace fatalities. The third section discusses determinants of workplace fatality trends in Canada. The fourth and final section briefly explores the role of asbestos in workplace fatalities in Canada. Two key messages emerge from this study. First, despite the problems associated with the definition and measurement of workplace fatalities, the number and rate of workplace fatalities in Canada, even from accidents, is unacceptably high. Second, insufficient progress is being made in reducing the number and rate of workplace fatalities. Canada can do much better.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Sharpe & Jill Hardt, 2006. "Five Deaths a Day: Workplace Fatalities in Canada, 1993-2005," CSLS Research Reports 2006-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:0604
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://csls.ca/research/five-deaths-a-day-workplace-fatalities-in-canada-1993-2005/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://csls.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/csls2006-04-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Fenn & Simon Ashby, 2004. "Workplace Risk, Establishment Size and Union Density," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(3), pages 461-480, September.
    2. Vani K. Borooah & John Mangan, 1998. "Why Has the Workplace Become Safer?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 31(3), pages 224-236, September.
    3. Alberto Isgut & Lance Bialas & James Milway, 2006. "Explaining Canada-U.S. Differences in Annual Hours Worked," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 13, pages 27-45, Fall.
    4. Herbert, R. & Landrigan, P.J., 2000. "Work-related death: A continuing epidemic," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(4), pages 541-545.
    5. Lars Osberg & Andrew Sharpe, 2003. "An Index of Labour Market Well-Being for OECD Countries," CSLS Research Reports 2003-05, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kyungsu Kim & Hyocher Kim & Minji Lee & Wongeon Jung & Dongphil Choi, 2022. "Incidence Rates of Agricultural Machine-Related Injuries in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Shang-Ku Chen & Li-Min Hsu & Nan-Chang Chiu & Wafaa Saleh & Chih-Wei Pai & Ping-Ling Chen, 2022. "Injury in Children with Developmental Disorders: A 1:1 Nested Case–Control Study Using Multiple Datasets in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-11, August.
    3. Don Drummond & Evan Capeluck & Matthew Calver, 2015. "The Key Challenge for Canadian Public Policy: Generating Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth," CSLS Research Reports 2015-11, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    4. Andrew Sharpe & Alexander Murray, 2011. "State of the Evidence on Health as a Determinant of Productivity," CSLS Research Reports 2011-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iffat Elbarazi & Sonia El-Zaemey & Basema Saddik & Balázs Ádám & Mohamed El Sadig & Aminu S. Abdullahi & Lin Fritschi & Mohamud Sheek-Hussein, 2022. "Estimate of Occupational Exposure to Carcinogens among Migrant Workers in the United Arab Emirates: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-12, October.
    2. Binnur Balkan & Semih Tumen, 2016. "Firm-Size Wage Gaps along the Formal-Informal Divide: Theory and Evidence," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 235-266, April.
    3. Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2010. "An Inquiry Into The Theory, Causes And Consequences Of Monitoring Indicators Of Health And Safety At Work," SIRE Discussion Papers 2010-120, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    4. Gabriele Mazzolini, 2014. "The economic consequences of accidents at work," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def015, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    5. Minjie Cai & Sian Moore & Chris Ball & Matt Flynn & Ken Mulkearn, 2022. "The role of union health and safety representatives during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A case study of the UK food processing, distribution, and retail sectors," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 390-407, July.
    6. Alex Bryson, 2016. "Health and safety risks in Britain's workplaces: where are they and who controls them?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 547-566, November.
    7. Alejandro Donado & Klaus Wa¨lde, 2012. "How trade unions increase welfare," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(563), pages 990-1009, September.
    8. Dike, Onyemaechi, 2019. "Informal employment and work health risks: Evidence from Cambodia," MPRA Paper 92943, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 24 Mar 2019.
    9. Monica Galizzi, 2013. "On The Recurrence Of Occupational Injuries And Workers' Compensation Claims," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(5), pages 582-599, May.
    10. James W. Dean & G. Robert Ross, 2006. "Paradoxes and Puzzles in Our Globalized World Public Support of Trade Policy, International Outsourcing Trade Liberalization, Globalization," Carleton Economic Papers 06-07, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    11. Luque de Haro, Víctor Antonio, 2024. "Social inequalities in adult mortality across Europe (18th-21st centuries): A critical analysis of theories and evidence," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    12. Arne Mastekaasa, 2013. "Unionization and Certified Sickness Absence: Norwegian Evidence," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(1), pages 117-141, January.
    13. Cedric E. Dawkins, 2019. "A Normative Argument for Independent Voice and Labor Unions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 1153-1165, April.
    14. Surhan Cam, 2014. "Non-unionised migrant workers in Britain: Evidence from the Labour Force Survey for a triple-challenge model," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 35(3), pages 531-556, August.
    15. Georges A. Tanguay & Ugo Lachapelle, 2019. "Potential Impacts of Telecommuting on Transportation Behaviours, Health and Hours Worked in Québec," CIRANO Project Reports 2019rp-07, CIRANO.
    16. Monica Galizzi & Tommaso Tempesti, 2015. "Workers’ Risk Tolerance and Occupational Injuries," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(10), pages 1858-1875, October.
    17. Mery Gonzalez-Delgado & Héctor Gómez-Dantés & Julián Alfredo Fernández-Niño & Eduardo Robles & Víctor H Borja & Miriam Aguilar, 2015. "Factors Associated with Fatal Occupational Accidents among Mexican Workers: A National Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-19, March.
    18. Mohamed Ali Ben Halima & Camille Regaert, 2015. "Quel est l’impact de la survenue d’un accident du travail sur la santé et le parcours professionnel ?," Working Papers DT68, IRDES institut for research and information in health economics, revised Jul 2015.
    19. Andrew Sharpe, 2007. "Three Policies to Improve Productivity Growth in Canada," CSLS Research Reports 2007-05, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.
    20. Pouliakas, Konstantinos & Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos, 2009. "Performance Pay as an Incentive for Lower Absence Rates in Britain," MPRA Paper 18238, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sls:resrep:0604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.