Seven new industry action plans which focus on the Queensland state government's workplace health and safety efforts for the next three years were launched by Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations John Mickel last week.

The action plans are the second stage of the Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Strategy 2004-12 which aims to reduce work-related injuries by 40% and fatalities by 20%.

Work-related injury and illness in Queensland costs an estimated AUD5.2 billion each year with 100 Queenslanders dying as a result of a work-related incident or disease and more than 100,000 suffering a work-related injury or illness.

The action plans focus on educating and informing employers and employees on managing risks in the workplace and aim to build a Queensland workplace culture that sees health and safety as an integral part of normal business operations.

Each action plan was developed in consultation with industry and covers construction; health and community services; transport and storage; manufacturing; rural; hospitality, recreation and other services and retail and wholesale industry sectors.