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CH 3: The True Costs of Construction Worker Injuries

Faculty of Applied Engineering and Urban Planning

Civil Engineering Department

Lecture 5 - Week 4

2nd Semester 2008/2009

UP Copyrights 2009

Const

ruct

ion S

afe

ty

Managem

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Eng: Eyad Haddad

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The True Costs of Construction Worker Injuries

• True accident costs are difficult to ascertain.

• Accident prevention is accepted as the responsibility of management.

• Accidents are very costly and reduce profits.

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Direct Costs of Injuries

Those costs associated with the treatment of the injury

and any unique compensation offered to workers as a

consequence of being injured.

This type of cost can be directly counted.

) ........ إلخ ) - – – العمل عن التعطيل أيام إسعاف سيارة مستشفى عالج مثل

التأمين يغطيها التي المصاريف وهي واحدة لمرة دفعها .Insuranceويتم

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Indirect cost of injuries• Indirect cost are those for which there is no

retrieval mechanism to accurately associate them with injuries.

واضحة الية ضمن بالحادث ربطها الصعب ومن دقيق بشكل حسابها يصعب تكاليف

1. Cost of lost time of injured worker. الخاصة بسيارته مصاب نقل موظف

2. Cost of lost time of other workers who stop work.

3. Cost of time lost by foreman, supervisor, or other executives.

4. Cost due to damage to equipment, tools, property and materials.

5. Etc…..page 55

6. الشركة سمعة

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Workers compensation• Employers regard workers compensation as an

insurance policy for their employee when they are on

the clock.

The premiums paid by the employer based on: التأمين قسط

علي يعتمد

1- The manual rate for a particular craft.النجار فمثال الواحدة الحرفة ألصحاب الراتب من ثابتة نسبة خصم كل 18يتم من يتقاضاها 100دوالر دوالر .

2- The experience modification rate )EMR( which reflects

the past accident experience of that particular employer.) العمل ) هذا بمثل تقوم خاصة مكاتب توجد بينهم والمقارنة الماضي في حدثت بحوادث الحادث قياس على تعتمد

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The manual rate• Reflects the claims history of a particular craft

• The manual rate is stated as the cost of insurance per 100$ of payroll.

The computation of the manual rate for certain craft is

based on the past experience of claims for that

particular craft. سابقة سنوات ثالث ولمدة كبيرة أم صغيرة كانت سوءا الحوادث كافة في البحث يتم حيث

المعايير بنفس والكبيرة الصغيرة الحوادث مع يتعامل أنة الطريقة هذه عيوب .ومن

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Experience Modification Rate )EMR(

Reflects the claim history of a particular employer for a

three-year period that does not include the immediately

preceding year.السنة تشمل ال ولكن الماضية الثالثة السنوات في حدثت التي المطالبات أعلى على بناءا التأمين كلفة قياس على تعتمد

نفسها.

EMR gives indicators about the safety performance

Evaluates the frequency and the severity of injuries.

Injury claims are defined as a loss ratio.

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Previous studies of the true costs of injuries

• H.W Heinrich )1941(

• Sheriff )1980(

• Bird and Loftus )1976(

• Leopold and Leonard )1987(

• Robinson )1979(

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Recent Research on the cost of injuries

• Construction Industry Institute CII in conjunction with

Washington university )Hinze and Appelgate 1991(

Conducted a research in order to quantify the true costs of

construction workers injuries.

• )185 Questioner, studding 834 injuries, 34 (

• In the data analyses two concepts were used indicated as: -

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1( Medical case injuries )those requiring only a doctors attention before the injured worker returns to work(

2( Lost work day cases )those in which the injured worker could not return to work the following workday or where the worker had to be reassigned to a different type of work because of the injury(

In the data analyses two concepts were used indicated as:

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Cost of injury according to CII

Source of injury Medical case Lost workday

Injured worker 176.93 815.58

Workers crow 51.4 178.90

Crew in vicinity 4.19 34.27

Replce. Worker .71 21.74

Admin. Staff 51.3 135.90

Damage prop. 100.80 174.62

Others & Claims 57.07+171.20 252.20+12,610

Indirect cost 613.60 14,223.36

Direct cost 519.15 6,910

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Example

- 34 medical case injuries, 8 lost work-day cases, calculate the total cost of project injuries

Medical case injury cost = 34)614+519(= 38,522 $

Lost-workday injury cost = 8)14223+6910(= 169,064$

Total cost of project injuries = 207,586 $

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Additional analysis

• No significant differences between the indirect to direct cost ratios of different crafts.

• Cost ratio increase on cost-reimbursable contracts and on larger projects.

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Models for estimating the field indirect cost of injuries

• 1- For medical-case injuries

• Field indirect cost = $150+15F+30H+100A

• 2- For lost-workday injuries

• Field indirect cost = $625+20F+20H+50V

Where: -

• F = number of hours lost to receive care

• H = number of hours lost on the day of injury

• A = number of hours spent by admin. to assist

• V = number of hours spent by admin. to investigate

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Continue

• Medical case injuries

• Field indirect cost = 150+80H+80A

• Lost-work day injury

• Filed indirect cost = 625+100H+100V

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Example

• Field indirect cost = 625+20)F+H(+50V

• = 625+20)30+6(+50)2(

• = 1,445 $

• Total indirect cost = 1,445 x 9 = 13,005 $

• Total direct cost = 13,005\ 2.058 = 6,319$

• Total cost = 19,324 $

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Comments• Indirect costs of injury are significant.• Sensitizing supervisory personnel to the true cost of injury will

improve safety.• Some costs are not known

• loss of pay for injure worker;• Pain and suffering;• Adverse effects of the injury on the other family

members;• Personal negligence suits;• Damage to company image;• Reduce profit margins to the firm;• Removal of the firm from biding shortlists;• Reduce moral of company employees and• Possible criminal charges.

• A large number of fraudulent workers compensation claims are filed each year.