The Rower Online Repository
Summary
The main goal of ROWER is to boost the research on OHS Economics by supporting its first steps through a structured and supported “incubation period”, where the fundamental basis of OHS Economics will be agreed and set, in order to let new researchers to build upon. This basis will be a knowledge repository (i.e. a State of the Art report – handbook) of OHS Economics. It will be developed from literature review starting from the beginning of the project. Researchers on the topic will undertake this task under supervisory of ATEITH, the co-ordinator of the project.
This report will be available on-line in html format, so that researchers both from ROWER Consortium and externals can comment upon and contribute.
Introduction
1.1 Basic Issues
1.1.1 The usefulness of OHS Economics
“There is no need for economic calculation to replace the deep human emotions that arise when life is unnecessarily shortened or impaired”(Dorman 2000)
The human cost of suffering is the incomparable and ultimate aspect of accidents and diseases, either they take place at work or not. The weakness against the threats for life and health is the most tragic side of human existence.
OHS Microeconomics
2.1 The case of the individual worker
“A worker’s decision to take a job, to report an injury or to attend work when feeling slightly ill is also affected by other factors, such as the labour market, the level of sick pay, attendance pressures, etc.” (Frick 1999)
The direct recipients of the consequences of occupational accidents and diseases are the workers – victims. The cost they bear is both economic and non-economic. Of course, the most important part is the non-economic cost that affects the utmost goods of life and health. Moreover, in some forms of occupational risk (Andreoni 1986), such as those caused by ionising radiations or exposure to certain chemicals, there might be an effect even on the future descendants of the victim.
OHS Macroeconomics
3.1 Cost at socal level
A large part, 10% - 20% of the total wealth produced in developed societies is reinvested into safety, risk reduction and public health… a lifesaving intervention ought to return more years of life expectancy (in good health) than it consumes in years of work to pay its cost… Budgets are limited – after all, there is more to life than risk reduction” (Lind 2002).
The third level of cost bearing and decision making in OHS is the society, mainly the State, that represents it. Of course, the society is also expressed through the social partners or NGO’s, however these institutions mainly assist State’s decision making, rather than making decisions by themselves (and undertake no cost). The interest for the examination of the cost of occupational accidents and diseases at national level started in 1970’s, as it was widely recognised that global increasing trends in losses due to accidents were exceeding those of Gross National Product - GNP (Lees 1996).
Recent issues on OHS Economics
4.1 The effect of global competition
“A commonly used argument is also that poor countries and companies cannot afford safety and health measures. There is no evidence that any country or company in the long run would have benefited from a low level of safety and health. On the contrary, recent studies by the ILO based on information from the World Economic Forum (2002) and the Lausanne Institute of Management IMD demonstrate that the most competitive countries are also the safest” (Hämäläinen et al. 2006).
The new state of world-wide competition and its economic consequences, widely called “globalisation” has changed the status or even the direction of evolution in many areas of the economy and the society, such as in labour, thus directly affecting OHS. The analysis of this phenomenon is out of the scope of this study. Therefore only the OHS related literature will be referred.
