EVERYDAY in Australia on average 380 workers suffer a work-related injury or disease for which they receive workers’ compensation, according to a report by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC).
EVERYDAY in Australia on average 380 workers suffer a work-related injury or disease for which they receive workers’ compensation, according to a report by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC).
The annual report, Compendium of workers’ compensation statistics Australia, shows the common trends in OHS based on accepted workers’ compensation claims, for 2001–02. Almost 140,000 new compensation claims were reported in 2001–02, which is an improvement of about 16 per cent over the past six years.
The compendium shows that, notwithstanding a fall of 10 per cent from the previous year, there were still almost 300 work-related compensated fatalities in 2001–02. However, despite this improvement, the result does not include the large majority of workplace deaths because they are not covered by workers compensation. NOHSC estimates that there are more than 2,000 work-related deaths each year in Australia, with the majority caused by occupational diseases such as cancer.
About half of all new workers’ compensation claims and fatalities have occurred in four industries over the past six years: manufacturing, construction, transport and storage, and health and community services.
