SafeWork SA recently issued a safety alert warning business owners in the agriculture sector about the dangers of working in confined spaces following the recent death of a farmer in a grain bin.
NT WorkSafe recently issued a safety alert for electrical workers and residents to exercise caution when accessing meter boxes fitted with older style meters found in homes built before 2014. The alert was issued after Power and Water Service personnel have reported finding a number of heat damaged service fuse holders in meter boxes in territory homes.
SafeWork NSW recently urged the 81,000 agricultural workers in the state to undertake work the safe way or ‘no way’ approach to work following a significant increase in reported agriculture industry safety incidents. In 2013, there were 149 reported agriculture industry safety incidents in NSW, however, this number more than doubled to 358 incidents in 2022 – an increase of more than 140 per cent.
WorkSafe Victoria recently called on cattle farming businesses to prioritise human safety elements in their operations following a number of recent incidents and fatalities in the agriculture sector.
For organisations looking to shift from lagging safety indicators to leading indicators, they must first address their preparedness, priorities and safety culture maturity level, according to recent research. Specifically, leading indicators must be adopted with a systems-thinking approach where they are developed and used in a work context involving people and technology, rather than merely focusing on human behaviour or identifying leading indicators for machinery or plant.
WorkSafe Victoria recently announced that employers and those responsible for prescribed equipment used outside of workplaces must notify the regulators of certain incidents involving a broader range of machinery. Importantly, high-risk machinery in common use such as tractors, quad bikes, forklifts, excavators and mining and quarrying equipment are now included.
Australia loses 41,194 work years annually due to work-related injury, disease and mental health conditions – the equivalent of more than 41,000 lost jobs – according to Monash University research. Published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the study aimed to quantify the national burden of working time lost to compensable occupational injury and disease and how working time lost is distributed across age, sex, injury and disease.
There has been a 47.5 per cent increase in primary psychological injury claims from 2019 to 2023 under Allianz Australia’s national claims portfolio. These claims are also resulting in 29.9 per cent increase in average claims costs and 30.2 per cent increase in time loss, equating to some 655,000 days of absence in the Allianz portfolio alone, according to Brianna Cattanach, national manager for mental health at Allianz Australia.
WorkSafe Victoria recently issued a safety alert about the health and safety risks of stacking boxes in cold rooms following an incident in which a young employee was struck on the head by falling boxes. The employee, who was restocking a cold room in a fast food restaurant, suffered a concussion and needed medical treatment. The boxes of frozen fries and patties weighed up to 16kg each and were stacked about 2 metres high.
In its latest biannual health surveillance report, Resources Safety and Health Queensland (RSHQ) has underscored significant concerns in the state’s resources industry, with a sharp focus on psychosocial hazards, sexual harassment, and the implementation of the ResHealth system. These issues have seen increased regulatory attention and reporting, reflecting both heightened awareness and the persistent challenges faced by workers in the sector.
