By Wendy Anders

Costa Rica’s young, male, and informal workers are the most vulnerable to occupational injury, as reflected in the findings of the Labor Ministry’s 2015 occupational health research presented Monday.

Nearly half of the over 115,000 workplace injuries that occurred last year were in the 20 – 35 age group, and 80 percent were in men, reported the Labor Ministry’s occupational health council.

Recovery from these injuries averaged 18 days, for a total of 2,089,221 disability days last year.

Occupations with the highest injury rates are agriculture, construction, and public services, according to the Labor Ministry.  And workers in unskilled occupations such as agriculture, construction, miscellaneous jobs, hotels, and restaurants accounted for 45 percent of the workplace injuries last year.

Over 10 percent of workplace accidents in 2015 were serious enough to cause death or permanent injury, stated the Labor Ministry. In 2015, 80 people died of a workplace injury, three were disabled, and 13,135 people suffered “permanent functional or anatomic reduction.”

“Preventing and minimizing these occurrences is the mission and the challenge posed to the administration and the institutions involved in this area, but the commitment must be shared by everyone, especially workers and employers, who have to take a proactive approach for occupational health in all workplaces, said Carlos Alvarado Quesada, Minister of Labor.

The Labor Ministry unveiled a preventive occupational health plan called “Prevenso 2016-2019” to strengthen training, and update occupational safety legislation and controls to help protect the country’s 2,027,518 workers, stated the Ministry.