Australia’s agricultural sector has received a mixed report card in Safe Work Australia’s latest release of Australian workers’ compensation statistics. Sources: Beef Central, Timberbiz
The 2019-20 report, released yesterday, provides the latest national statistics on accepted serious workers’ compensation claims.
Findings specific to the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector included the highest frequency rate of serious claims of any industry (9.6 serious claims per million hours worked).
The agriculture, forestry and fishing sector had the highest rate of serious claims nationally, followed by manufacturing, and transport, postal and warehousing.
The agriculture, forestry and fi shing industry recorded the highest frequency rate for injury and musculoskeletal disorders (9.0 serious claims per million hours worked), almost twice the average for all industries (5.3).
Overall key findings Australia-wide across all industry sectors in 2019-20 include:
There were 120,355 serious workers’ compensation claims Australia-wide in all industry sectors with 31% of serious claims were for illness and diseases.
The three occupations with the highest rate of serious claims were labourers, community and personal service workers and machinery operators and drivers of these 69% of serious claims were for injuries.
The three most common injury types were traumatic joint/ligament and muscle/tendon injuries (38% of all serious claims); musculoskeletal and connective tissue diseases (18%) and wounds, lacerations, amputations and internal organ damage (16%).
The number of serious claims fell 13% from133,041 claims in 2000–01 to 115,707 claims in 2018–19.
The median time lost for a serious claim was seven working weeks.
The full report is available here:Final Australian Workers Compensation Statistics 2019-20
