The REAL workplace fatality statistics up to June 2008.

Sourced from Political Alert – your one stop Parliament alert shop.
24 November 2008

This is a media release issued by the ASCC.

The Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) Chairman,
Mr Bill Scales AO, today announced the release of two reports on
workplace fatalities.

The Notified Fatalities Statistical Report July 2007 to June 2008
provides the most recent information on work-related fatalities
which are notified to occupational health and safety (OHS) authorities
across Australia during the financial year.

Mr Scales said that this report provides analysis of notified fatalities
across Australia for the full financial year.

"There were 16 fewer notified worker fatalities in 2007-08
(131 worker fatalities) than in 2006-07 (147 worker
fatalities), a decrease of 11 per cent," Mr Scales said.

"While this suggests that we are taking steps in the right direction
to reduce work-related fatalities, every death in the workplace is still
one death too many."

Some other key findings of the report include:

In 2007-08 there were 150 notified work-related fatalities
(131 worker notified fatalities and 19 bystander notified
fatalities). 137 of these fatalities were males.

Four industries accounted for eight out of every ten notified
work-related fatalities: construction (24 per cent), transport
and storage (23 per cent), agriculture, forestry and fishing
(18 per cent) and manufacturing (13 per cent).

The most common causes of fatalities were vehicle accidents
(44 fatalities), being hit by falling objects (23 fatalities),
being hit by moving objects (21 fatalities), falls from a height
(16 fatalities) and being trapped by moving machinery
(12 fatalities).

Construction workplaces recorded a consistently high number
of notified worker fatalities over the period 2003-04 to 2006-07
(ranging from 18 in 2004-05 to 36 in 2007-08).

There was a notable decrease in the number of notified worker
fatalities in agriculture, forestry and fishery workplaces
(42 fatalities in 2003-04 to 25 in 2007-08).

There was a notable decrease in the number of notified
worker fatalities in mining workplaces (4 fatalities in
2007-08 compared with 13 fatalities in 2006-07).

While the above report provides the most recent information on work-
related injury fatalities, its coverage is not complete. In most states and
territories, work-related fatalities which occur on public roads are notified
to the police and are not included.

To provide a comprehensive picture of the number of people who died from
injury due to work-related activity, the ASCC combines the information
from the notified fatalities with workers’ compensation data and coronial
information. The ASCC is also releasing the results of this analysis in the
Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia, 2005-06 report.

Some key findings of this report for 2005-06 include:

270 people died from injuries sustained while working for income.

123 persons died from injuries incurred while travelling to or from work.

41 persons were killed as a bystander to work activity.

The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry and transport and storage
industry recorded the highest number of deaths while working for income
(55 deaths each) followed by the construction industry (43 deaths).

Vehicle accident was the cause of 40 per cent of the working for income
deaths. The next most common cause was being hit by moving objects
(14 per cent) followed by falls from a height (13 per cent).

Vehicle accident accounted for 18 bystander deaths, of those, 13 involved
trucks, semi trailers or lorries.

"While the number of deaths that occurred while working for income
increased by 5 per cent over the three year period, 2003-04 to 2005-06,
the growth in employment resulted in a slight decrease in incidence rates,
from 2.7 deaths per 100 000 employed persons in 2003-04 to 2.6 in
2005-06," said Mr. Scales.

"Every injury or death in the workplace is one too many. We each have a
responsibility for being safe at work, not just for ourselves but for the sake
of our workmates and our families."

Both reports are available for free download from the ASCC
website at ascc.gov.au.