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The news service is sponsored bySAK, the largest central tradeunion in Finland, and eleven of its 24 affiliated unions.

More work-related deaths - experts blame new work structures

Helsinki (15.03.1998 - Juhani Artto) Last year the Finnish authorities registered 166 work-related deaths, an increase of sixteen cases over the previous year.

Asbestosis was the cause of death of 86 individuals. Asbestosis deaths have risen throughout the 1990s. Most of the victims are men formerly engaged in the dockyards and construction industry in the 1950s and 1960s who had retired with disability pensions.

Last year 43 work-related deaths were of a kind in which regulations require a thorough analysis of the individual case. This figure was the highest in ten years.

"This increase in deaths is so stark that it cannot be a coincidence", says Hannu Tarvainen, a  Departmental Manager from the Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions.

"In order to meet the demands of efficiency and competitiveness work has begun to be divided into numerous and chained subcontracts. The time available for completing construction projects has also been cut significantly, increasing haste in planning and in the actual construction work. As a result, there are problems of control and of occupational safety co-operation which undermine the entire safety system."

Last year was an especially gloomy one in the construction industry. Most of the 18 victims of work-related accidents were experienced and skilled workers.

"To raise the safety level, the new risk factors in working life must be analysed and managed at site level", Tarvainen urges.

"New risk factors include segmented and chained subcontracts, short period employment, return to work after unemployment and difficulties in recognising the changing risks of the working environment."

The Federation safety expert Sakari Seppänen points to the problematic role of small enterprises employing fewer than ten workers. "Small contractors neither identify present risks nor have a clear understanding of safety management."

"Both subcontractors and those who arrange subcontracting must increase their participation in practical safety management at joint work sites", Seppänen says.

Although last year there were more fatal accidents than there have been for a long time, the total number of work-related accidents has fallen rapidly. In the peak year of 1974 the authorities registered 268,000 work-related accidents in which a total of 252 individuals lost their lives.

In the 1990s, the annual number of work-related accidents and illnesses has levelled off at about 130,000. During the last boom period for the Finnish economy ten years ago the authorities registered almost 200,000 work-related accidents and cases of illness.

As a whole and over the long term the trend has been very positive, the experts at the Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions emphasise.