Safe Work Australia figures show decrease in rate of serious incident claims in transport.
The number of claims for serious safety incidents in the transport, postal and warehousing sector has dropped, but the industry still remains one of Australia’s most dangerous to work in.
A new report from Safe Work Australia shows the rate of claims fell from 22.5 per 1,000 employees to 19.1 in 2012-13.
Safe Work Australia says the 15 per cent drop was only behind the telecommunications and arts and recreation services sector (22 per cent).
However, transport, postal and warehousing ranks second among all industries for incidence rates of serious claims.
“In 2012-13, the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry recorded the highest incidence rate with 21.0 serious claims per 1000 employees followed by the Transport, postal & warehousing industry (19.1) and Manufacturing (17.9),” the report states.
Safe Work Australia adds that the incident rate of injury and musculoskeletal claims made across all industries between 2000-01 and 2011-12 fell by 26 per cent, well short of the National Occupational Health and Safety Strategy’s target of 40 per cent.
“South Australia recorded a 40% improvement and was the only jurisdiction to achieve the improvement target,” the report says.
Safe Work Australia says the number of compensated fatalities has continued to fall despite an increase in employment.
This marks a 41 per cent improvement in the incidence of compensated fatalities from injury and musculoskeletal disorders between 2000-01 and 2011-12.
“This is more than double the target of a 20% reduction by 30 June 2012,” the report says.
The statistics are contained in Safe Work Australia’s Comparative Performance Monitoring report, which analyses work health and safety and workers’ compensation schemes in Australia and New Zealand.