ABSTRACT
The cost of occupational health and safety problems remains substantial in both developed and developing countries. For example, according to the Department of Labor in the United States (United States Department of Labour, 2007a and b), there were 5703 fatalities and 1.2 million cases of injury or illness requiring time off work (with a median number of days away of seven) in 2006, while the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (2007) indicates that there were 241 fatalities and in excess of 400,000 cases of injury at work (accounting for a total of 36 million working days lost) in Britain. Even in smaller economies such as New Zealand, the costs are signifi cant, with a total of 235,200 occupational injuries costing in excess of 225 million New Zealand Dollars being shown for 2006 (Statistics New Zealand, 2007). Unfortunately such statistics are signifi cantly harder to come by in developing countries. For example in 2008, the International Labor Organisation (2008) only reports on occupational injuries for India in the mining and quarrying sector (38 fatalities
and 162 nonfatal injuries per 100,000 workers). According to the South African Department of Labor (2007), a total of 2070 million South African Rands (approximately equivalent to 258.75 million U.S. dollars) was spent on 886,511 workers’ compensation claims.
