Between 2012 to 2016, 3.5 million occupational accidents occurred in Brazil, resulting in 13.3 thousand deaths. Absenteeism due to sick leave costs R$ 22 billion to public coffers. Construction workers and truck drivers are among the most frequent victims.
Carelessness, lack of safety equipment and even exhaustion cause 700000 workplace accidents per year across the country. Data collected by the Social Security and the Ministry of Labor reveal the seriousness of the problem, which affects workers in many professions. Brazil is the fourth country in the world with the most workplace accidents, behind only China, India and Indonesia. Since 2012, the economy has suffered an impact of R$ 22 billion on the account of workplace accidents. If the cases of accidents in informal occupations were included, this figure could reach R$40 billion.
According to the Ministry of Finance, there were 3.5 million cases of workplace accidents in 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District. These cases resulted in 13363 deaths and generated a cost of R$ 22.171 billion to public coffers with social security expenditures, such as sick pay, disability pension, death pension and accident assistance. Over the past five years, 450000 people suffered fractures due to work-related accidents.
The construction industry and the service sector are the areas in which most accidents happen. In the construction sector, the latest data on deaths is from 2009, when 395 workers died in workplace accidents. But the number may be higher because, in most of the cases, the death certificates do not include the exact cause of death, or the place where it occurred. The biggest victims of fatal or incapacitating accidents in the service sector are professional drivers, especially truck and trailer drivers. According to data from the Mortality Information System of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, there have been an average of 15,000 accidents involving truck drivers, with 1500 deaths per year.