October is National Safe Work Month in Australia with the theme this year of "safety is everyone’s business" and with warehousing and manufacturing featuring in the top six industries for serious workplace injuries and deaths, the information available is particularly relevant.

In the last 10 years, more than 1,880 traumatic injury fatalities have been recorded in Australian workplaces, according to data from Safe Work Australia. In addition, there were more than 1,165,100 serious worker’s compensation claims made involving more than one week of lost working time.

“Findings from Safe Work Australia’s research reveals that, in the absence of work-related injuries and illnesses, on average each year Australia’s economy would be AUD28.6 billion larger,” Safe Work Australia states. “185,500 additional full-time equivalent jobs would be created, and workers across all occupations and skill levels would benefit from an average wage rise of 1.3%.”

Safe Work Australia says 76% of work-related traumatic injury fatalities and 61% of serious worker’s compensation claims come from just six industries:

1. Agriculture, forestry and fishing
2. Public administration and safety
3. Transport, postal and warehousing
4. Manufacturing
5. Health care and social assistance
6. Construction

“Vehicle incidents continue to account for the largest proportion of worker fatalities (42%; 84 fatalities),” Safe Work Australia continues. 

“This is followed by falls from a height (15%; 29 fatalities), which has increased significantly since the previous year (from 17 fatalities; increasing 71%). 80% of all serious claims involve body stressing, falls, slips and trips, being hit by moving objects, or mental stress.

“Claims for mental health conditions continued to increase in 2022-2023, and now account for 11% of all serious claims. The median time lost from work in these cases is more than five times that recorded across all injuries/diseases.”

Safe Work Month is a Federal Government initiative which has been held annually since 2009 to raise awareness about workplace health and safety and to provide resources for Australians.

October’s Safe Work Month program has been broken down into four weekly topics: work health and safety fundamentals; psychosocial hazards; risk management fundamentals and; musculoskeletal injuries.

More information and resources for Safe Work Month can be found on Safe Work Australia’s website.