123 Construction Industry Workers killed on the Job between 2008 - 2011

As an industry we MUST ensure we push SAFETY as a #1 priority

 

 

The stats are in people and our industry falls behind every other sector in the country in safety. Read on -

Construction

The Construction industry employed 1.02 million people in 2010–11, representing 9% of the Australian workforce. Within this industry, 73% of workers were classed as employees and were covered by workers’ compensation. Employers in this industry paid 2.3% of payroll in 2010–11 to cover their employees for workers’ compensation. 

Fatalities

Over the three years from 2008–09 to 2010–11,
123 Construction workers died from work-related injuries. This number of deaths equates to 4.26 fatalities per 100 000 workers which is nearly twice the national fatalities rate of 2.23.

Falls from height accounted for 25% of fatalities (31 deaths) with ladders involved in 11 deaths, buildings in 7 and scaffolding in 7.

Hit by falling objects accounted for 15% of fatalities with a range of building materials and equipment involved. Vehicle incident also accounted for 15% of fatalities with cars involved in 11 of the 18 deaths.

Electrocutions resulted in 17 deaths (14% of fatalities) and Being hit by moving objects accounted for 12 deaths (10%), 8 of which involved a truck.

Serious Claims

The preliminary data for 2010–11 show 13 640 claims for serious injury or illness. Over the three years from 2008–09 to 2010–11 the Construction industry accounted for 11% of all serious workers’ compensation claims. On average there were 39 claims each day from employees who required one or more weeks off work because of work-related injury or disease.

Figure 1 shows that the incidence rate of serious claims in this industry has fallen 36% from 31.0 claims per 1000 employees in 2000–01 to 19.9 in 2009–10. However, this rate remains much higher than the rate for all industries of 13.0 and was the fourth highest of all industries in 2009–10.

Over the past three years Body stressing accounted for 34% of claims with many of these claims due to muscular stress while handling a range of materials and equipment. Falls, trips and slips of a person accounted for 26% of claims and there were similar numbers for Falls from height as Falls on same level. Being hit by moving objects accounted for 16% of claims. Many of these claims involved being hit by falling materials or equipment.

Over the period 2006–07 to 2009–10 all jurisdictions except the Australian Capital Territory recorded decreases in incidence rates. The largest decrease was recorded by South Australia (27%) closely followed by Tasmania (26%) and Western Australia (24%). The Australian Capital Territory recorded a 14% increase.

The preliminary data for 2010–11 show that incidence rates across Australia ranged from 12.6 claims per 1000 employees in the Northern Territory to 25.2 in Tasmania.

Over the period 2006–07 to 2009–10 South Australia recorded the largest decrease in incidence rates (39%) followed by the Northern Territory (29%). The Australian Capital Territory recorded the largest increase (17%).

The preliminary data for 2010–11 show that the Australian Capital Territory recorded the highest incidence rate of 9.5 claims per 1000 employees while the Northern Territory recorded the lowest at 2.5.

Claims data were extracted from the National Data Set (NDS) for compensation statistics. The data presented here are restricted to accepted claims for serious injury and disease. Serious claims include fatalities, claims for permanent disability and claims for conditions that involve one or more weeks of time lost from work. Serious claims do not include those involving journeys to and from work. The 2010–11 data are preliminary and expected to rise. More information on this industry can be found at safeworkaustralia.gov.au

Information on fatalities is extracted from the Traumatic Injury Fatalities database. Annual fatalities reports can be found at http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/ov.au

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