Malaysia’s figure was “way below the global average of 18%”, according to the world risk poll by Lloyd’s Register Foundation released late last month.

The Philippines (34%) had the highest percentage among Southeast Asian countries. The figures for other Asean members were: Laos (8%), Singapore and Myanmar (10%), Thailand (12%) Indonesia (19%) and Vietnam (16%). No figures were provided for Brunei and Timor-Leste.

The report said “Malaysia does pretty well” with only 7% of the current workforce having experienced harm at work in the last two years, on par with the 9% recorded in 2021.

Malaysia was also among the highest in Southeast Asian nations to provide training in occupational safety and health, critical components in safeguarding the wellbeing of workers across industries.

According to the study, 31% of those surveyed in Malaysia received such training. Singapore came up tops after recording 39%, while Myanmar had the lowest percentage with 12%.

The authors said that Malaysia scored “pretty close” to the global average, with less than a third (31%) of its workforce having been trained in the last two years, adding, “There is significant opportunity to improve.”

The poll is based on nearly 147,000 interviews conducted by global analytics firm Gallup in 142 countries and territories throughout 2023.

According to the survey, 18% of the current global workforce or 667 million adults have personally experienced serious harm at work in the past two years.