Workers in poorer countries face twice the risk of workplace harm, research finds

Workers in low-income countries were more than twice as likely to experience serious workplace harm as those in wealthier nations, research from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) found.

The report, ‘Danger on the job: How global inequality shapes workplace harm’, found national wealth was the strongest predictor of whether workers experienced injury or feared for their safety at work.

Produced with funding from Lloyd’s Register Foundation and drawing on data from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2023, the research found 37% of workers in the Western Pacific region had experienced workplace harm or knew someone who had in the previous two years.

This compared with 31% in Africa, 30% in South-East Asia, 22% in the Eastern Mediterranean and 21% in both the Americas and Europe.

RoSPA said around 395 million people suffered work-related injuries globally each year, while occupational injuries and illnesses accounted for an estimated 6% of global GDP losses.

The research found household income and education offered some protection against workplace harm, but their impact was outweighed by national prosperity.

A worker in a low-income country moving from the poorest 20% of households to the wealthiest 20% saw their risk reduce by 18%, compared with a 38% reduction for someone making the same move in a high-income country.

The report also found more than six in 10 workers globally had never received occupational safety and health training.