Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia
State Labour Inspectorate

Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia, Social Statistics Department

Central Statistical Bureau
Lāčplēša street 1, Rīga, LV – 1301;
State Labour Inspectorate
38 k-1, Kr.Valdemara Street
Riga, LV –1010

Harmonised data on accidents at work are collected in the framework of the administrative data collection 'European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW).

An accident at work is defined as 'a discrete occurrence in the course of work which leads to physical or mental harm'.

The data include only fatal and non-fatal accidents involving more than 3 calendar days of absence from work. If the accident does not lead to the death of the victim it is called a 'non-fatal' (or 'serious') accident.

A fatal accident at work is defined as an accident which leads to the death of a victim within one year of the accident.

The variables collected on accidents at work include:

- Economic activity of the employer and size of the enterprise
- Employment status, occupation, age, sex and nationality of victim
- Geographical location, date and time of the accident
- Type of injury, body part injured and the severity of the accident (number of full calendar days during which the victim is unfit for work excluding the day of the accident, permanent incapacity or death within one year of the accident).
- Variables on causes and circumstances of the accident: workstation, working environment, working process, specific physical activity, material agent of the specific physical activity, deviation and material agent of deviation, contact - mode of injury and material agent of contact - mode of injury.

The national ESAW sources are the declarations of accidents at work  to the Labour inspectorate.

The reference population (number of employees) related to the national ESAW reporting system is provided  from administrative sources: Annual Integrated survey on enterprise economic activity, Quarterly reports on the activities of businesses, institutions, foundations, associations and funds, administrative data. Data include average number of employees working in the main and secondary job.

Classifications are used in ESAW:

• NACE classification (most recent version provided)
• For coding of  the occupations  the national Latvian Classification of Occupations is used, developed on the basis of the International Standard Classification of Occupations ISCO -08 (or most recent version).
• NUTS (most recent version provided)

All economic sectors are covered with the exception of:
- military institutions personnel and police and fire services with special status
- the agricultural sector self-employed persons are not fully covered.
Self-employed persons and family workers are excluded.

COVERAGE OF ECONOMIC SECTORS (NACE), (Annual update expected)

Additional comments on coverage of economic sectors

Codes:

y Sector fully covered
n Sector not covered at all
p Secor partially covered
n.a. Not applicable, i.e. sector does not exist in country

European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW) are based on case-by-case data for accidents at work resulting in more than 3 days' absence from work, permanent incapacity or death of the victim.

An accident at work is 'a discrete occurrence in the course of work which leads to physical or mental harm'.

- This includes all accidents in the course of work, whether they happen inside or outside the premises of the employer, on the premises of another employer, in public places or during transport (including road traffic accidents or accidents in any other mean of transportation) and at home (such as during teleworking). It also includes cases of acute poisoning and wilful acts of other persons;
- It excludes: accidents on the way to or from work (commuting accidents); deliberate self-inflicted injuries; occurrences caused solely by a medical condition (such as heart attack or stroke) that occurred during work, i.e. which were not (at least partially) caused by the occupational activity of the victim;; accidents to members of the public, for example family members of a worker who are not working; and occupational diseases.

A fatal accident at work is defined as an accident which leads to the death of a victim within one year of the accident. 

In a typical fatal accident at work, the death occurs within a few days after the day of the accident and the limitation to the day of the accident would result already in a significant underestimation of such very severe accidents.

The following 15 phase I and II variables have to be sent by Member States to Eurostat from reference year 2011 onwards on an annual basis:

1. Case number
2. Economic activity of the employer (NACE)
3. Occupation of Victim (ISCO)
4. Age of Victim
5. Sex of Victim
6. Type of Injury
7. Part of Body Injured
8. Geographical Location of the Accident
9. Date of the Accident
10. Time of the Accident 
11. Size of the Enterprise 
12. Nationality of the Victim 
13. Employment Status of the Victim
14. Days Lost (severity)
15. Weight ESAW collection

In addition, Phase III variables are reported: 16. Workstation, 17. Working Environment, 18. Working Process, 

19. - 20. Specific Physical Activity, Material Agent associated with the of Specific Physical Activity
21. - 22. Deviation, Material Agent associated with the Deviation
23. - 24. Contact - mode of injury, Material Agent associated with the Contact - Mode of injury.

LV does not applyan additional sampling for the ESAW Phase III.

The definition of the variables is stated in the Commission Regulation (EU) No 349/2011 and further specified in the ESAW methodology.

COVERAGE OF ESAW VARIABLES (Annual update expected)

Additional comments on coverage of ESAW variables

Codes:

Coverage
y Variable fully covered
n Variable not covered at all, i.e. variable is so far not collected in country
p Variable partially covered

Days lost
y num Days lost are covered and in data file listed by numbers (004 - 182)
y cat Days lost are covered and in data file listed by categories (A01 - A06)
p num, p cat Days lost are partly covered and listed by numbers (categories)

Type of weight
U weight to correct under-reporting
S weight to account for sampling
Sp weight to correct special sampling

Data are collected for each accident.

If a person is a victim of more than one accident during the reference year, several cases are reported (one for each accident).

If there are several victims in the same event of accident, also several cases are reported (one for each victim).

Statistical information covers all sectors and all employees. The other employment types (self-employed, family members, students and others) are not covered.

Some occupations are subject to national confidentiality rules and not covered (military institutions personel and police and fire services with special status). 

COVERAGE OF PROFESSIONAL STATUS (Annual update expected)

Additional comments on coverage of professional status

Codes:

y Professional status fully covered
n Professional status not covered at all
p Professional status partially covered
n.a. Not applicable, i.e. professional status does not exist in country

COVERAGE OF ACCIDENTS OUTSIDE PREMISES (Annual update expected)

Additional comments on coverage of accidents outside premises

Codes:

y Accidents fully covered
n Accidents not covered at all
p Accidents partially covered
F Data of fatal road traffic accidents and fatal accidents on board of any means of transport provided in the main CSV data file
A Data of fatal and non-fatal road traffic accidents as well as fatal and non-fatal accidents on board of any means of transport provided in the main CSV data file

The whole country. 

Data are available since reference year 2003.

Not applicable.

Numbers of accidents.

Is relevant with metadata at EU level - calendar year.

Regulations of Minister Cabinet Nr. 950 (25 August 2009) "Procedures for Investigation and Registration of Accidents at

Work" (53 and 54 articles).

Not applicable.

Official Statistics Law of the Republic of Latvia

There is currently no treatment of ESAW data with regard to statistical confidentiality taking place.

There is no specific release calendar for ESAW data (see the Eurostat website for all published ESAW data).

See section 14 Timeliness and punctuality for more details about the timing and punctuality of ESAW data releases.

Not available.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-32-11-955) Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see worksheet 10. Accessibility and clarity) respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably.

The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/european-statistics-code-of-practice).

Annual.

See Eurostat website (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat) for occasional news releases.

See Eurostat website (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat) for publications on accidents at work. 

See 'data' on the Eurostat website (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat; datasets under 'Database by themes/Population and social conditions/Health/Health and safety at work (hsw)/Accidents at work (ESAW…)' ).

Not available

ESAW data is not available as microdata.

Not applicable

Not available

The ESAW summary methodology (version of 2013) defines further details of the data to be transmitted (see http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-RA-12-102).

Metadata are provided. 

Quality reports are available with the national metadata

The Central Statistical Bureau and the State Labour inspectorate are working on estimation of under-reporting and possible inconsistencies with the ESAW methodology.
During the introduction of ESAW methodology several seminars and training courses for SLI inspectors were organised.

ESAW is an administrative data collection which provides information on accidents at work as they are reported by employers to the State Labour Inspectorate.

The type of data transmitted to Eurostat as well as its timing and other aspects follow strict rules (see section 6. 'Institutional mandate'). 

LV fulfill obligations in relation to the legal acts and guidelines. This includes all classification systems. 

The main user at the international level is ILO.
At national level - ministries, CSB.

There is no data on regular users satisfaction surveys. 

This file contains sections which list in detail the available variables, economic sectors, employment status and information on traffic accidents.

Although ESAW data is presented according to the list of all Phase variables, it should be noted that quality could suffer from underreporting.

REPORTING LEVELS OF ECONOMIC SECTORS (NACE), (Annual update expected)

Global reporting level

Reporting levels by sector

Additional comments on global reporting level

Codes:

N sector not covered by data collection
UNK sector covered but unknown reporting level
(value %) reporting level
(e) rough estimate (instead of "medium" or "high")

As an administrative data collection, the data transmitted by Latvia to Eurostat are thought to exactly reflect the number of accidents notified to the State Labour Inspectorate.

Therefore, ESAW data are considered to have a high level of accuracy in relation to the absolute number of accidents notified.

Significant issues for the accuracy of ESAW are, however, under-coverage and under-reporting of accidents.

Under-coverage means that a known part of the economy or workforce of a country is not covered by the data, for example if an economic sector or a certain professional status (e.g. self-employed) is by definition not included in the notification system.

Under-reporting means that certain accidents that should have been reported were in fact not reported, e.g. if enterprises or workers are not aware of the obligation/possibility to notify or if they are afraid of the consequences of notification for the company such as investments in health and safety.

In general, it is thought that most fatal and very severe accidents are reported.

In general, fatal accidents at work are assumed to be of higher accuracy than non-fatal accidents at work as fatal accidents are usually investigated by relevant state authorities.

The ESAW data collection is mainly based on data from administrative registers, and therefore there is usually no sampling involved.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The legal requirement for Member States is to send Eurostat ESAW data until 30 June of year N+2, where N is the reference year in which the accidents took place.

Approximately 12 months after the end of the reference year (experience of previous years).

Approximately 21 months after the end of the reference year (experience of previous years).

LV transmit data before the legal deadline of 30 June of year N+2. Eurostat then checks and validates this data and publishes most of it on its website within a few weeks (in July N+2 or before).

See above.

Not relevant. The information is collected for the country in general.

Not applicable.

The datasets up to reference year 2007 are restricted  and uses NACE Rev. 1 classification for economic activities.

The last major break for ESAW data was between 2007 and 2008 including a change from NACE Rev.1 to NACE Rev. 2. 

ESAW data may be compared with relevant data from the Labour Force Survey ad-hoc modules on accidents at work and other work-related health problems for the reference years 2020, 2013 and 2007.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

N/A

ESAW data are occasionally revised, such as when a country notifies Eurostat about changes in the data and metadata.

The practice for data revisions is similar to the practice of publishing new data: either the country sends revised data to Eurostat which checks, validates and publishes it in agreement with the responsible national authority, or Eurostat calculates revised data and sends it to the country's authority for agreement.

Not available.

The main institution compiling data on accidents at work in Latvia is the State Labour Inspectorate (SLI) under the Ministry of Welfare, the work of which is regulated by the Law “On Labour Protection”.  The Central Statistical Bureau every year receives the SLI annual report on accidents at work and from 2005 - database of accidents at  work requested by Eurostat. SLI has implemented all 3 Phases of ESAW statistics. Several measures have been taken to ensure the quality of ESAW data, for instance, explanatory work with employers on correct filling reports on accidents at work, prepared guidelines for staff with variables code cards and translation of ESAW methodology has been carried out to ensure quality for coding of the reports.

The Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) provides the ESAW reference population using several data sources: Annual Integrated survey on enterprise economic activity, Quarterly reports on the activities of businesses, institutions, foundations, associations and funds, and other administrative data.

Annual

ESAW data are based on administrative data source.

LV does not use population surveys

Comparing the statistics with previous cycles (if applicable);
The number of fatal accidents at work is compare with Causes of Death Register.

LV does not use any weights for calculation non-fatal accidents at work or to correct under-reporting.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

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