Abstract
Introduction
Studies of occupational health and safety and related costs have shown that the financial consequences of accidents in the workplace affect the workers involved, their companies and society as a whole [1–9]. According to Riel and Imbeau [7], the estimation of occupational health and safety costs, from the decision-making perspective, presents various difficulties, including the complexity of cost allocation, the inadequacy of data available to managers and the absence of an accounting model specifically designed for this purpose. Most companies concentrate on calculating the costs arising from the occurrence of accidents, but fail to analyze the costs of preventive measures [5]. In addition, the consequential costs are not fully identified due to the existence of additional, hidden costs, which are not accounted for in the accounting information system [3].
Laufer [4] identified another difficulty concerning the estimation of accident costs, and the peculiarities of data compilation in this respect. Information on accidents in the workplace may be obtained; at different times: When the accident takes place, when the worker is replaced or when the worker returns to work; in different places: Where the accident takes place, at the healthcare centre or in the administrative departments of the company; by different bodies: By the company, by the Social Security System or by insurance companies. For Andreoni [5], given the complexity of accident cost estimation, traditional models merely achieve identification and classification of these costs, a task which Leopold and Leonard [10] and Rikhardsson [8] believe should be adjusted to adhere to the particular circumstances of each company. However, many studies have confirmed the importance of monitoring occupational health and safety costs as a means to improving not only the occupational risk prevention policy, but also the company’s profitability. A better prevention policy should reduce the accident rate and thus reduce the resulting costs [5–7, 11–13].
Moreover, Dorman [6] argued that the prevention of accidents ought to reduce the costs associated with poor working conditions, and Andreoni [5] pointed out that investment in preventive measures would enhance business profit by reducing the total number of accidents and their ensuing costs. However, Huang et al. [14, 15] showed, in an empirical study, that managers believed the main benefits of an effective safety program to be predominantly financial in nature [16], but failed to recognize increased productivity or reduced costs.
A Spanish survey on health and safety in the workplace, which included 401 construction companies [17] reported the following findings. In 87.7% of the workplaces where an accident had taken place in the last two years the economic impact had not been estimated previously. Also, when an estimation of the costs arising from accidents was made, in 82.3% of the workplaces that had reported one or more accidents in the last two years, this estimation took into account the insurance premiums and social security contributions paid. On the other hand, the cost of measures to prevent occupational risks was estimated in only 17.2% of the workplaces, the cost of loss of production resulting from lack of insurance in 15.6% and the cost of other workers’ and managers’ loss of working hours resulting from lack of insurance in 14.2%. Lastly, it states that only 4.0% of the companies included the improvement of their occupational risk prevention policy as a business objective (although productivity and product quality were main objectives in most cases). Of the companies that responded to this survey, only 5.7% stated financial reasons, i.e. cost reduction, as an incentive for accident prevention measures. According to this survey, most companies have no information on the costs of risk-prevention measures or on those arising from accidents. As a result, such companies are unable to include these variables in their occupational risk prevention policy. For a more rational decision-making process, the estimation, analysis and monitoring of health and safety costs should be integrated into management systems. In this regard, Zanko and Dawson [18] demonstrate a general absence of studies vis-à-vis health and safety management, even though this is seen increasingly as a key operational and strategic concern of business organizations. Other similar empirical research studies have been carried out by different institutions such as the Eurostat-European Commision or the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, so as some of the authors included in the bibliography [19, 20].
Taking into account these observations, the present paper carries out a review of the contributions to the analysis of health and safety costs made in previous studies. Subsequently, the results of a survey, based on the instruments of the European Commission [21], carried out on 40 construction sites in Spain in 2008 and related to health and safety costs of construction companies, are shown. Finally, the authors put forward a classification of such costs, with particular reference to the construction industry, with the aim of improving the management and monitoring of these costs. Each of the categories proposed is a relevant cost item, and together they provide useful information on which to base an appropriate risk prevention policy.
Methodology
First, a literature review of the studies most relevant to this research has been carried out. Different sources of information have been consulted, ranging from rules of general and specific nature in Europe and Spain and the official statistical data on workplace accidents, to existing research in this area or on costs related to health and safety. Subsequently, an empirical study has been conducted and finally, a statistical analysis of the data has been applied.
Study population
The selection of the sample has been done with all the construction works in progress, according to database records for Andalusia (Spain). We selected a sample of 40 building works in Andalusia (Spain), at different stages of completion in 2008. The contract operating budgets (COB), indicative of the size of the Project, range from 300,000 to five million euros (classified as small projects), to COB 10–50 million euros (large projects), thus all levels of the target population have been represented. In the sample selected, 45% of the projects are privately developed and 55% are public-sector developments. Moreover, 40% of the projects are civil engineering works whereas 60% are building works; 47.5% of the projects have a contract execution term of between 18–24 months, 55% of the projects are near to completion, and over 80% of the work is finalised.
Previous data was obtained on completion of a questionnaire survey addressed to 80 individuals working at the 40 construction sites. The Site Manager, responsible for financial management and accident prevention on the site, and the Site Administrator were interviewed during visits to the sites due to the large number of questions related to the financial supervision of the works and cost control. Afterwards, the main characteristics of the population addressed by the questionnaire survey were analysed.
The questionnaire
The use of a questionnaire provides comparability of responses and obtains quantitative measurements of a wide variety of aspects, both objective and subjective, regarding the target population, through the use of standardised procedures of inquiry [22].
As shown by Amerigo [23] and Azofra [24], the questionnaire contains different types of questions: Closed, open, dichotomous, categorised and single-answer, working from general issues toward more specific ones. The questions in this study, as seen in Table 1, are grouped into blocks or subject areas, and their suitability was confirmed in a previous pilot test, whose aim was to develop a comprehensible, definitive questionnaire. This was done by interviewing various officials at some of the sites included in the sample.
Statistical analysis
The variables defined were quantitative in nature. Based on the results of the survey, a descriptive analysis of the data related to the health and safety costs was conducted, using the SPSS tool.
Theory
Safety cost management in the workplace
The question of occupational health and safety costs (henceforth, safety costs) has been studied by many authors (see, for example, Gosselin [9, 26]). Heinrich [1] pioneered research in this field, formulating a correlation between the direct and indirect costs of work accidents. Subsequently, other authors developed methods for the estimation of safety costs, usually based on assessing the financial consequences of accidents. Most such studies analyse the consequences of a deficient safety policy, and in this respect, two approaches can be seen: Cost investigations based on insurance premiums. Accident costs are classified according to whether or not they are reimbursed by the insurance companies. Cost categories are defined beforehand, in line with the systems applied by the insurance companies (see Heinrich [1]; Simmonds & Grimaldi [2]). Cost studies based on business management. Costs are analysed from the standpoint of business management in order to improve the decision-making process (see 3–7, 10, 11]).
Studies based on insurance premiums
Heinrich [1] divided accident costs into direct and indirect costs. The former included all elements covered by the accident insurance policies previously taken out by the company. The latter referred to all other elements which were not covered but occurred as a result of the accident.
Therefore, indirect costs include all additional costs arising from an accident. Company accounting systems do not usually register these as separate budget items and, as a result, remain hidden or invisible to company management. Heinrich formulated a linear correlation between direct and indirect costs according to which indirect costs were four times higher than direct ones. Thus, the estimation of the total cost of an accident could be obtained by multiplying the direct cost by five.
This classification was subsequently developed [2, 27] to differentiate between insured and uninsured costs. The latter included any difference between the insurance cover and any legal claim payable to the injured worker (also considered to be a direct cost). These authors argued that insured costs are recoverable, whereas uninsured costs arenon-recoverable.
In a study analysing over 2,000 accidents, Simmonds and Grimaldi [2] failed to find any fixed relationship between direct and indirect costs. They provided a method for estimating uninsured accident costs by classifying accidents into four categories, according to their outcome, and then estimating the average uninsured cost of each accident category, taking as a reference the data provided by the insurance companies.
Studies based on business management
In 1977, Wallach [28] proposed a method to analyse the uninsured costs arising from work accidents, as the sum of all losses caused in any of the following production-related factors: Labour force, machinery, materials, premises and time lost.
Subsequent studies, such as Andreoni [5], Laufer [4], Leopold and Leonard [10], Veltry [29] Brody et al. [3], Dorman [6], Labelle [30], Rikhardsson and Impgaard [31], Oxemburg and Marlow [11], Gavious et al. [32], and Jallon et al. [9], among others, have further developed the analysis of costs in relation to company safety standards in the companies (see Appendix).
Laufer [4] classified safety costs, as well as differentiating between insured and uninsured costs, as controllable and non-controllable (by management) in order to encourage prevention-awareness in companies’ investment policies.
Leopold and Leonard [10] differentiated between direct and indirect costs. They defined direct costs as those recognized by the company as a direct consequence of the accident, and whose final impact can be easily estimated. By contrast, indirect costs also affect the company, but cannot be immediately and directly identified, since they depend on many different factors, such as lost time, production delays, etc. It is sometimes so difficult to identify these costs that companies simply refuse to monitorthem.
Andreoni [5] divided health and safety costs into the following components: Prevention costs, insured accident costs and uninsured accident costs (in this author’s opinion, the latter form part of business risk and are related to management policies). Andreoni also differentiated between fixed costs and variable costs (depending on the number and severity of accidents or occupational diseases).
Brody et al. [3] used the above classification along with some additional categories, detailing various cost items included in each category.
Dorman [6] classified safety costs, differentiating between financial and non-financial costs, between internal and external costs, between fixed and variable costs and between direct (or visible) and indirect (or invisible) costs. The former are fully and explicitly recorded in the accounting system, while the latter are not and, as a result, cannot be quantified without observation and case-by-case monitoring of accidents and occupational illnesses (or the use of approximations).
According to Jallon et al. [9], the main findings of studies dealing with costs arising from inadequate safety in the workplace are that: Accident costs include certain hidden or invisible items that are not acknowledged by company management. These costs, usually considered indirect, are borne entirely by the company but tend to leave no record as such in the company accounting system, or are not directly ascribed to the accident. Given the hidden nature of these costs, they are hard to single out, identify, estimate and evaluate. Models that have been proposed to estimate the costs and benefits of preventive measures are complex. Indirect costs are difficult to obtain, complex to estimate and sometimes marginal in their financial impact. It is not surprising, therefore, that managers tend to use calculation methods of partial scope and are frequently unwilling to evaluate some of the factors involved in indirect costs.
Safety cost management in construction companies
Businesses tend to underestimate indirect safety costs, as well as the potential benefits associated with preventive measures [3, 33]. Given the complexity of estimating these costs, researchers have examined methods to assist management in this respect. However, despite advances in the calculation and control of safety costs, many companies still fail to address this subject. Apart from the perceived complexity, companies might prefer not to overload managers, be reluctant to modify their existing accounting methods or give very limited importance to their health and safety departments [9]. Furthermore, none of the calculation methods proposed for the evaluation of indirect health and safety costs is universally acknowledged or can be generalized [25].
It is clear that most companies are not fully aware of the crucial importance of correctly identifying health and safety costs. This was confirmed by the results of a Spanish survey into the management of health and safety in the workplace [17], with particular reference to the construction industry.
To achieve effective management of safety costs, there must be adequate accounting control. However, the accounting systems currently used by most construction companies do not identify these costs. Instead, they appear as sporadic accounting items or are recorded in a non-itemized way in the company’s information system [8, 34].
Results
The empirical results of the present study, conducted by means of questionnaires completed by different construction companies sampled at 40 building sites in Andalusia during 2008, also confirm that the accounting systems currently used by construction companies in this study do not identify the costs related to health and safety at work. A preliminary analysis reveals that safety costs are not estimated and, consequently, no kind of control is exercised. Later in this study, based on the results of the survey, prevention costs have been calculated and accident costs have been estimated.
Prevention costs are considered those obtained from the data gathered at the construction worksites. They include the costs incurred by the constructor in order to comply with legal requirements with respect to accident prevention, to implement measures to prevent accidents during construction work and to improve health and safety conditions in all areas of the work performed. In addition, the evaluation & monitoring costs are included, those derived from the actions taken by the company to obtain appropriate testing and maintenance of the health and safety measures adopted, regarding every facet of the work in question, with the aim of reducing or minimising the risk of accident or occupational disease.
The accident costs have been estimated based on the Prevention Technical Note NTP 549: Work Accidents’s Cost: Evaluation Procedure [35].
Although no independent accounting information about prevention costs exists, the estimated prevention costs in the sample show that, regarding the typology of the construction sites, the higher average cost occurs on building construction sites, as opposed to average costs on civil engineering construction sites. Table 2 shows results related to prevention costs according to the type of project.
The costs related to the project phase are shown in Table 3. It shows that higher costs occur during the structure phase.
None of the worksites analyzed calculate the accident cost data. In this research, the accident costs are estimated based on the data obtained from a survey conducted at the construction site. The costs of accidents were calculated using the model proposed by the Navarre Institute of Occupational Health [36], based on Risk Prevention Technical Note 273 published by the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work [37], which has been used as a benchmark by several studies carried out in Spain, at an overview level, including work by the INSHT National Centre for Working Conditions [38], the Basque Institute of Occupational Health [39] and the La Rioja Institute of Occupational Health [40]. Table 4 shows the accident costs estimated by project phase.
Discussion
In the review of significant contributions to the analysis of occupational health and safety costs as well as in the empirical study carried out, it can be noted that health and safety costs are not accounted for separately in the accounting system of the construction companies. That is to say, the items that comprise these costs are not identified. Most of the concepts involved are included under different accounting items, and the impact of each one on the income statement remains unknown. They are hidden in other accounting items, and therefore managers do not have adequate financial information to make accurate safety decisions. Nonetheless, the formulated empirical study highlights that health and safety costs do exist and are substantial.
It is important to understand the nature of safety costs in order to effectively address occupational risk prevention management. This is true in all fields, although this study focuses on the situation in construction companies.
To remain competitive, companies must not only control production costs, but all their different activities. As stated in Article 16 of Law 31/1995 on preventing risks in the workplace [41], a company’s occupational risk prevention system must be integrated into its general management plan as an essential aspect of business activity [18, 25]. Strategies must be developed in order to improve working conditions, through the implementation of health and safety measures. An effective prevention policy will enable companies to monitor problems arising from the application of such policies and facilitate both internal and external communication.
One of the functions of management accounting is to provide useful information for the proper management of risk prevention. As a starting point for the analysis and control of safety costs, the costs generated by the company’s safety management policy should be part of the information provided by its accounting system. As Requena and Vera [42] point out, the quantification of a phenomenon may ultimately enable it to be controlled. Furthermore, companies that effectively manage their safety costs will be much more successful [25].
From this perspective, it is first necessary to define which categories of safety costs can be considered costing targets to be taken into account when making decisions regarding risk prevention. Subsequently, the company’s accounting system should be adapted to compile data and supply information on the costing targets selected.
The classification put forward in this paper, in line with those of Andreoni [5] and Brody et al. [3], differentiates between costs derived from the implementation of preventive measures and those brought about by the absence of such measures, termed by the latter authors as ‘prevention costs’ and ‘accident costs’, respectively. However, a deeper analysis of the cost factors included in each of these two categories leads us to propose a different approach for the definition and classification of safety costs in the construction industry.
We define health and safety costs on building sites as the cost of the resources, goods and services employed in order to improve working conditions and to reduce the accident rate, together with those generated by the occurrence of incidents and/or accidents. The proposed classification of a company’s health and safety costs is as follows: Safety costs: The costs incurred to maintain the health and safety standards of the company, i.e. the cost of the resources needed to implement the required preventive actions, either voluntarily or under legal obligation. Within safety costs, a distinction can be made between prevention costs and evaluation & monitoring costs. Prevention costs: Those recognized by the company in order to comply with the legal requirements concerning risk prevention, the cost of the measures taken to implement a risk prevention policy for the building site, and the sums required to improve health and safety conditions in the various activities of the company. Evaluation & monitoring costs: Those derived from the actions taken to verify and maintain measures on health and safety issues in order to reduce or minimize accident risks or occupational diseases in all the activities undertaken by the company. Non-safety costs: Those derived from not meeting health and safety standards, i.e. the costs incurred as a result of accidents and those incurred due to non-compliance with legal provisions on safety issues. A further subdivision within these costs is that of tangible and intangible non-safety costs. Tangible non-safety costs: those which can be attributed to a specific accident and which can be quantified by conventional accounting methods. Consequently, these costs comprise all those related to non-compliance with legal safety standards and those incurred due to an accident or incident in the company. Intangible non-safety costs: These are frequently not recorded and are omitted from conventional accounting systems. Estimation of such costs usually relies on the hypothesis of a functional relationship between them and the presumed causative factors [42]. According to Gosellin [25], the intangible costs of accidents are those which cannot be easily estimated in terms of their economic impact, or are those for which we still lack reliable performance indicators to measure their effect on the company (such as loss of image, low employee morale, labour disputes or market loss). Extra costs: This category covers all the losses on building sites caused by events beyond the control of any technical or human management, i.e. by unforeseeable or catastrophic events. Since this cost category includes all cost allocations beyond the control of management, they are considered non-controllable costs, and cannot be registered in a structured model for the control of company safety costs.
Tables 5, 6, 7 and 8 show the classification put forward in this paper, adapted to the special conditions of construction companies. Each of the categories identified as a specific cost element may include direct and indirect costs, depending on the nature of the causative element, the characteristics of the company’s accounting information system and the limitations of the data collecting process. Future research will eventually provide a more in-depth analysis of safety-related costs in construction companies.
Conclusions
The main conclusions reached during the study are as follows: The cost of accidents includes hidden or invisible items, or indirect costs, which are not usually recognized by company management. Such costs are difficult to isolate, identify and evaluate.
One of the tasks of a company’s management accounting system is to provide useful information for effective occupational risk prevention management. Therefore, the costs of the company’s health and safety policy should be included in the information provided by the accounting system, as a starting point for analysis and control.
In this study regarding health and safety costs on building sites, these costs are defined as the resources, goods and services used in implementing activities to improve working conditions and reduce accident rates, together with the costs generated by incidents and/or accidents.
With respect to determining cost categories, there are many parallels between the management of quality control costs and that of safety costs, although the latter are unique in character. Accordingly, we believe it is necessary to define categories, which could act as appropriate cost-estimation areas providing useful information for rational decision-making with respect to risk prevention. From this perspective, the following classification of health and safety costs is proposed: Safety costs, with two components: Prevention costs and evaluation & monitoring costs. Non-safety costs, with three components: Tangible costs, intangible costs and extraordinary costs.
Conflict of interest
None to declare.
Footnotes
Appendix
Summary of the review of safety costs in construction companies
| Author | Year | Data | Study Subject | Identification of costs | Conclusions | Remarks |
| Heinrich | 1931 | Questionnaires on accidents. | Direct and indirect costs. | Direct costs: Healthcare of the injured person, hospitalization and compensation. | - 4:1 indirect/direct ratio | - First analysis of indirect accident costs in the US. |
| 1959 | - Indirect costs: Low morale, out of action machinery and equipment, training of replacement worker, loss of orders, loss of working hours of managers and other workers, paid but not worked time, overhead costs. | |||||
| Simmonds &Grimaldi | 1956 | Questionnaires on accidents. | Average cost of different kinds of accidents. | - Insured costs. | - Accidents, only time loss: $465. | - Define accidents in four categories in the US. |
| 1963 | - Uninsured costs: Production losses of other workers, losses for hiring replacement labour, losses for machinery downtime, heating costs, electricity and rent. | - Accidents with medical intervention: $115. | ||||
| - Accidents with first-aid: $25. | ||||||
| - Accidents without time loss: $850. | ||||||
| Wallach | 1977 | Other previous studies. | Cost of accidents. | - Sum of the costs for losses in each production element. | - Labour force, machinery, materials, installations and time. | |
| Andreoni | 1986 | Other previous studies. | Costs for the company and per accident. | - Prevention costs (fixed and variable). | - Four kinds of ratios: - Indirect/Direct: 0.63/1 | - Accident categories: |
| - Insured accident costs (fixed and variable). | - Individual/Collective:0.45/1 | - Accidents after which the worker resumes work in less than 8 hours. | ||||
| - Uninsured accident costs (fixed and variable). | - Variable/fixed: 0.62/1 | - Accidents with sick leave. | ||||
| - Accidents with short-term or long-term incapacity. | ||||||
| Laufer | 1987 | Questionnaires on accidents. | Uninsured average cost per accident, in worked hours. | - Cost for lost working hours. | - Average cost of lost working hours: 67.33 wh. | - 210 accidents in the construction industry in Israel. |
| - Extra salaries. | - when applicable: Extra salaries and costs of material damage: 100.42 wh. | |||||
| - Costs of material damage. | ||||||
| Leopold &Leonard | 1987 | Questionnaires on accidents, for indirect costs and statistics at a national level and other studies on direct costs. | Average cost per type of injury. | - Direct costs: Salary of the worker after the accident, uninsured costs (increase in the insurance premium because of accidents), damage to equipment and legal costs. | - Type 1: Injuries, direct cost: £111 and indirect: £28. | - 394 accidents in the UK, classified into four types. |
| - Indirect costs: Lost work time. | - Type 2: Injuries affecting the entrepreneur (not estimated). | - US | ||||
| -Type 3: Major injuries, fractures, amputations, etc.: direct cost: £557; indirect cost: £106. | - Navy operation. | |||||
| - Type 4: Death, direct cost £629 and indirect cost £216. | ||||||
| Veltry | 1990 | Accident costs. | Direct costs: Health insurance, liability insurance and claims for compensation. | - Actual direct cost about twice as high as the amount recorded by the entrepreneur. | ||
| Brody et al. | 1990 | Questionnaires on accidents | Indirect costs. | - Indirect costs: Labour costs, material losses, administrative costs, production costs and other costs. | - Indirect cost: $1156. | - Study using 311 questionnaires. |
| - Direct cost: $1391. | - To estimate costs, the sector, the size of the company, workers’ ages and sick leave must be taken into account. | |||||
| - In the timber industry: $317; in the mining industry $2236. | ||||||
| Riel &Imbeau | 1995 | Data provided by companies. | Costs for a department of a company or industrial plant. | - Insurance costs. | - Discrete costs and regular costs. | - Activity Based Costing (ABC). |
| -Costs of the damage at the workplace. | - Quantifiable, irreducible and intangible costs. | |||||
| - Decision-making. | ||||||
| - Costs for disruptions. | ||||||
| Oxenburg | 1997 | Data provided by companies. | Costs per worker for a recovery period of a year | - Worked hours. | - Case 1:0.089 years. | - Cost-benefit analysis. |
| - Salaries. | - Case 2:0.37 years. | - Australia. | ||||
| - Training and hiring of new labour force. | ||||||
| - Production losses. | ||||||
| - Costs of intervention. | ||||||
| Dorman | 2000 | - Economic and non-economic costs. | ||||
| - Internal and external. | ||||||
| - Fixed and variable. | ||||||
| - Visible and hidden. | ||||||
| Labelle | 2000 | Data from companies or from the accidents. | Accident costs. | - Direct and indirect costs. | - Five kinds of accidents: First-aid, registered accidents, accidents with sick leave, permanent disability. | |
| Rikhardsson &Impgaard | 2004 | Questionnaires on accidents. | Accident costs. | - Time. | - Trivial: $ 1,050 | - Map of activities. |
| - Materials. | - Medium: $ 3,800 | - Activity Based Costing. | ||||
| - External services. | - Severe: $ 10,300 | - Denmark and Canada. | ||||
| - Other costs. | ||||||
| Oxenburgh &Marlow | 2005 | Data provided by companies. | Annual savings and recovery periods. | - Costs of intervention. | - Expected recuperation period, 17 months; actual time, 2 months | - Cost-benefit analysis. |
| -Changes in salaries, productivity, extra hours. | - Australia. | |||||
| - Reduction in production, return to work of the injured worker, insurance. | ||||||
| - Supervision and reduction in overhead costs | ||||||
| Bergstrom | 2005 | Data provided by companies. | Total benefit. | - Changes in standard values, sick leave, holidays, other causes of absenteeism, salaries, productivity. | - $20,9151 benefit in 2 years. | - Cost-benefit analysis. |
| - Metal industry. | ||||||
| - Finland. | ||||||
| - Israel. | ||||||
| Gavious et al. | 2009 | Data from companies or from the accidents. | Costs of the accidents. | - Direct costs. | - Direct costs: $ 355,950. | |
| - Indirect costs. | - Indirect costs: $104,600. | |||||
| - Rewards. | ||||||
| - Immeasurable (morale and reputation). | ||||||
| Jallon et al. | 2011 | Previous studies. | Indirect accident costs. | - Indirect costs: Criteria for the development of a calculation model. | - To permit the entrepreneur’s decision to be based on company data. | |
| - To develop a flexible model for different users. | ||||||
| - To evaluate production losses. | ||||||
| - To use this model in at least one specific case. |
