Occupational fatality and injury risks for overseas blue-collar workers in Taiwan

Abstract

This study analyzed occupational accidents involving overseas blue-collar workers in Taiwan. In total, 6392 work-related accident reports were filed from 2001 to 2008. These reports were acquired from the worker compensation insurance database of the Bureau of Labor Insurance (BLI), Taiwan. The BLI data reveal that Thai workers accounted for 70% of all occupational accidents, and roughly 77.4% of these accidents involved workers aged ≤34 years. Moreover, most occupational accidents involved either companies with <30 workers or with 100–299 workers. The leading injury cause was caught in machinery (74.5%). The incidence of accidents involving foreign blue-collar workers differed according to worker sex, with male workers involved in significantly more occupational accidents than female workers during the period analyzed. The findings that worker sex, nationality, age, and company size are significantly correlated with occupational accident incidence has important implications for occupational safety and will likely prove useful when designing effective accident-prevention programs.