Self-employed construction deaths rise

A breakdown of construction deaths for 2008/9 has revealed that the number of self-employed construction workers killed at work actually increased despite the overall number of deaths having significantly declined.Figures supplied by the Health and Safety Executive show the number of self-employed workers killed increased from 19 to 20 a 5% increase, while the number of employees who were fatally injured decreased from 53 to 33.

The figures are further confused as some of the workers categorised as employees by the HSE were working under the Construction Industry Scheme (the stand alone tax scheme for the construction industry). Most of these workers have all the employment characteristics of an employee but are considered to be self-employed for tax purposes.

The analysis was published by construction union UCATT which believes that the overall reduction in deaths is primarily due to the recession, which has resulted in a marked decline in construction output, resulting in thousands of construction workers losing their jobs.