The effects of firm size on injury frequency in construction

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the influence of firm size on lost-time injury rates. Records of the Workers' Compensation Board of Ontario data were reviewed, relating to injuries, manhours, payroll and firm size. Data for the period 1988-1993 clearly showed that injury frequency increases consistently as firm size decreases. Large firms have a consistently lower frequency of Lost Time Injuries compared to smaller firms. This trend is evident over several years and appears to be unaffected by cyclical employment patterns. Several factors which may be responsible for this effect are discussed. These findings suggest that public policy issues relating to occupational health and safety in the construction industry may need to be focussed on small to medium sized firms rather than large firms. New regulations and standards which are designed for larger employers (e.g. standards with requirements which may be predicated by relatively high minimum numbers of workers on particular projects) or which are more readily implemented by large firms may not yield the type of improvement sought, since the injury frequency within that group is already low. New approaches to both enforcement, education and information dissemination targeted to smaller employers are needed.