JEDDAH, 30 October 2006 — According to official statistics released recently, there were 95,000 accidents at work so far this year, 320 of them fatal.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, 31,782 workers recovered fully from work-related injuries whereas 2,859 recovered but suffered kidney failure.
The General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) has recently posted on its website details of work-related accidents, such as the locations of the mishaps, the number of Saudis and non-Saudis involved, and whether the worker was employed by the government or private sector. The injured workers can, along with their families, still take advantage of stipends and medical insurance in case of poor health or retirement, according to GOSI
The total number of Saudis injured reached 6,470, which is seven percent of the total number of recorded cases. The number of non-Saudis was 87,000 — 93 percent of the total. The study added that 50 percent of accidents happened in the construction sector, and five percent happened in the financial, insurance and real estate sectors.
The service sector ranked first in types of accident-prone professions, constituting 60 percent; 32 percent were engineers.
Less than one percent (669 cases) of injured workers belonged to the chemical and food industry.
