Two hundred people were fatally injured at work in Australia last calendar year, compared to 195 in 2022, according to recent Safe Work Australia data.
It found that the traumatic injury fatality rate for workers in Australia has decreased by 19 per cent over the past decade, while Australia’s current work-related injury rate of 3.5 per cent – the proportion of people who experienced a work-related injury or illness in the previous 12 months – is roughly one-third the global rate of 12.1 per cent.
Just over three-quarters of work-related traumatic injury fatalities and 61 per cent of serious workers’ compensation claims occurred in just 6 industries: agriculture, forestry and fishing; public administration and safety; transport, postal and warehousing; manufacturing; health care and social assistance, and construction.
Vehicle incidents continue to account for the largest proportion of worker fatalities (42 per cent; 84 fatalities). Falls from a height was the second highest contributor to worker fatalities, with a concerning increase of 71 per cent since 2022, from 17 to 29 fatalities.
The Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2024 report also found that claims for mental health conditions continued to increase in 2023, now accounting for 10.5 per cent of all serious claims. This is a 19.2 per cent increase on 2021-22, and a 97.3 per cent increase compared with 10 years ago.
The median time lost from work in these cases is more than 5 times longer than that recorded across all injuries and diseases.
The median time lost from work-related injuries and illnesses has also been increasing over the past 10 years, with 21.3 per cent of accepted claims involving 13 weeks or more off work in 2021-22.
Furthermore, body stressing injuries were the leading cause of serious workers’ compensation claims (32.7 per cent), followed by falls, slips and trips of a person; being hit by moving objects, and mental stress.
“All workers have the right to a healthy and safe working environment and any workplace death is unacceptable,” said Marie Boland, CEO of Safe Work Australia.
“While Australia compares favourably to the rest of the world, the fact that 200 people did not come home from work in 2023 reminds us that we cannot afford to be complacent.”
Over the past 10 years, there have been more than 1880 traumatic injury fatalities in Australian workplaces, and almost 1.2 million workers have made a serious workers’ compensation claim involving more than one week of working time lost.
Findings from Safe Work Australia’s research report, Safer, healthier, wealthier, show that, in the absence of work-related injuries and illnesses, on average each year Australia’s economy would be $28.6 billion larger, 185,500 additional full-time equivalent jobs would be created, and workers across all occupations and skill levels would benefit from an average wage rise of 1.3 per cent.