The ministry in charge of worker safety in Samoa has acknowledged that there is an underreporting of work place accidents causing injuries to staff workers .
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A Samoa Occupational, Safety and Health Framework report launched by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour showed an average of only 27 cases of in-work accidents resulting in staff injury were officially reported.
The ministry's CEO, Pulotu Lyndon Chu Ling, told the Newsline newspaper this had been happening for some time and might be continuing.
He said the ministry learned about the majority of accidents from media reports , not the ministries where the accidents occurred.
Pulotu said sometimes they only learned about an on-the-job accident when the injured worker's family or the injured worker themselves showed up for a claim.
The CEO believed the under-reporting was due to a lack of awareness, not just on the part of employers but employees as well.
He said the ministry seemed to be making inroads with awareness programs they had carried out on the reporting process and compensation entitlements.
The Ministry of Labor works with the Accident Compensation Corporation in handling accidents in the workplace because there are compensations involved for the injured.
The ACC is responsible for payment of compensation from the fund collected through deductions from staff salaries and wages.