The number of people injured at work is rising, managers see fewer hazards

A new report on safety in industry shows that near-miss situations are more often noticed by workers than by their supervisors. Warning signals may therefore not reach the people who decide on OHS rules.

In the first half of 2026, 33,081 people were injured in workplace accidents, 7.9 percent more than a year earlier. This is according to preliminary data from Statistics Poland (GUS) (opens in a new tab) published on 10 September. The accident rate rose from 2.23 to 2.41 injured persons per 1,000 employed people. In serious accidents, 214 people were injured and 71 people died. The most common circumstance was injury while moving around (42.2 percent of cases).

The report “A Step Away from an Accident” by the Safe at Work Coalition Association, published on 1 October (opens in a new tab), describes how differently these hazards are perceived by employees and management. The study was conducted by the SW Research agency from 18 to 26 June on a sample of 600 people, with 300 managers and 300 employees. It covered five sectors: food production, the chemical industry, heavy industry, mining and energy. The report’s partner is ZUS.

70 percent of employees say that a potentially accidental event occurred in their company in the last 12 months. This means a situation in which no one was injured, but the risk of an accident was high. Among management staff, 41 percent of respondents gave this answer. Accidents involving injuries are confirmed by 62 percent of employees and 43 percent of managers, while serious accidents are confirmed by 60 and 29 percent respectively.

According to the report, 15 percent of organizations analyze such events only after an incident, and individual aspects of safety are usually checked once or twice a year. Respondents point to underestimating risk and doing things “their own way” as the main barriers. One in four respondents mentions time and performance pressure. Jacek Dolibóg, president of the association and managing director of CWS Workwear Polska, recommends regularly collecting reports of near-miss events (“that was close”), including through mobile applications.

For managers, these figures mean that information about near-accident situations may not reach them if there is no channel in the team for reporting them.