B9: Workforce – Health and Safety
Disclosure requirements for work-related accidents and fatalities.
In brief
VSME disclosure requirement B9 concerns workforce health and safety: the number and rate of recordable work-related accidents, work-related fatalities, and annual hours worked per employee. The page defines what counts as a work-related accident and provides the calculation for the accident rate. Fatalities are reported whenever they occur.
VSME Standard Reference
The following content is extracted from the official EFRAG Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for non-listed SMEs (VSME), December 2024.
View original VSME Standard (PDF)Selko Insights
What Counts as Work-Related?
According to VSME, work-related injuries and ill health arise from exposure to hazards at work. For teleworking, only injuries directly related to work performance count—not general home environment incidents. Travel injuries are work-related if the employee was performing work activities for the employer, though regular commuting is subject to national legislation. Mental illness is considered work-related only when voluntarily reported by the worker and confirmed by a licensed healthcare professional. Health issues from smoking, substance abuse, physical inactivity, or unhealthy diets are not work-related.
Rate of Recordable Work-Related Accidents
The VSME standard defines the formula for calculating the rate of recordable work-related accidents:
Annual Hours Per Employee
The VSME standard guidance uses 2,000 hours as the standard work year. Selko Report applies this same assumption—allocating 2,000 hours per FTE reported—to maintain consistency with the VSME framework and simplify calculations for our users.
Fatalities Reporting
While the VSME standard allows companies to separately report fatalities from work-related injuries versus work-related ill health, Selko Report does not require this separation. Given the rare occurrence of workplace fatalities in small and medium-sized businesses, a combined total provides sufficient disclosure without adding unnecessary complexity.
Related content
B8: General workforce characteristics
VSME disclosure B8: employee numbers, contract types, gender distribution and turnover rate.
Read moreB10: Remuneration and training
VSME disclosure B10: minimum wage, gender pay gap, collective bargaining coverage and training hours.
Read moreC5: Additional workforce data
VSME disclosure C5: gender ratio at management level and the share of temporary workers.
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