The basic condition for creating and maintaining the competitive advantage of an enterprise in the modern business environment is to give priority to the intellectual resources in strategic management of the enterprise and especially to the human resources. Utilizing the potential of human resources is closely linked to caring for their health and safety at work. The aim of this chapter is to overview the level of protection of employees at work from the risk of work injury and occupational diseases to identify the determinants of occupational safety and health of workforce in the European countries and to indicate the various alternatives that can be used to cover the above mentioned risks. Based on comparative analysis of existing insurance schemes of the occupational injury and diseases, the authors will propose the best alternative for protection against these risks, both from aspect of protection of employees and aspect of protection of employers.
TopIntroduction
In modern enterprises, or so-called knowledge-based enterprises and information economy enterprises, the intellectual capital has become the most important determinant of growth and competitiveness (Rađenović & Krstić, 2017). Intellectual resources, and especially human resources as their most important part, have a significant role in creating and sustaining competitive advantage of enterprises especially in the small and medium enterprises and business development projects. In the current business environment, the human resources includes the following aspects: decision making capacity, innovation, creativity, sense of community and team work, awareness of personal responsibility, and caring for personal development (Milojković & Stojković, 2012). Providing healthy and safe working conditions becomes a basic precondition for achieving high efficiency and productivity of human resources. Hence, in the 21st century, human resource management, in addition to recruiting, training and staff development, includes taking numerous measures and activities that create a healthy and safe working environment. These measures and activities are directed towards achieving maximum level of safety at work, reducing occupational diseases and injuries to the lowest possible level, as well as creating conditions in which employees will feel safe, satisfied and motivated (Živković et al., 2013) (International Labour Organization, 2015). This is achieved by training employees, prescribing ways and procedures for using the equipment, keeping a certain distance from the equipment, automating business processes, etc. (Todorović & Živković, 2020).
Although working conditions in terms of health and safety in modern enterprises are quite improved compared to traditional enterprises, this level is still unsatisfactory. According to the estimates from 2017, about 2.7 million employees die every day due to occupational diseases or injuries. This practically means that about 7,500 people dies every day due to poor working conditions, with 6,500 people dying from occupational diseases and 1,000 from accidents and injuries (International Labour Office, 2019). There are an even larger number of employees who survive but end up with the body injury or occupational disease that threatens their physical integrity or health condition.
Injuries at work and occupational diseases have serious and multiple consequences for employees, employers, and society (Todorović & Živković, 2020). They negatively affect lives and health of employees, because they lead to threat of their physical integrity (partial or complete disability), but also cause occurrence of some occupational diseases and death of employees (Renovica, 2010). From employers’ point of view, injuries at work and occupational diseases cause loss or reduction of work ability and work potential of human resources in enterprise, the huge costs to employers, and serious social costs to society and states (total cost of occupational injuries and work-related diseases are 4% of the gross domestic product) (Shin et al., 2011) (International Labour Office, 2012). Social security benefits are usually insufficient to provide material security that existed before injury or illness occurred. The disability pension is significantly lower than salary, and often not all treatment costs are covered (Pak et al., 2012). In addition, in countries where there is the “grey economy”, a large number of people are not registered for social insurance, so this category of employees is not completely covered from these risks. Also, very often employees in the informal economy engage in extremely risky jobs in which these risks are noticeable (e.g. construction, mining, manufacturing, etc.). Therefore, it is necessary to identify alternatives for providing quality protection to employees from these risks. In addition to social insurance provided by the state, an alternative is to provide insurance against consequences of an injury.