The purpose of this safety alert is to highlight the importance of fit testing for tight-fitting respirators for workers who need to use them, and to reinforce this requirement under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011.

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Each year, Safe Work Australia produces national work health and safety statistics, providing important evidence on the state of work health and safety in Australia.

Our latest publication, the Key Work Health and Safety Statistics, Australia 2022, provides an overview of national work-related fatality data for 2021 and workers’ compensation claims data for 2020-21.

Understanding the causes and the industries most affected can help reduce work-related fatalities, injuries and disease which have a devastating impact on workers, their families and the community.

Tragically, 169 people were fatally injured at work in 2021.

Key findings include:

• The fatality rate of workers in Australia has decreased by 35% in the last 10 years.
• 96% of worker fatalities were male.
• Vehicle collisions accounted for 38% of all worker fatalities.
• Machinery operators and drivers had the highest number of fatalities by occupation (68 fatalities).
• The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry had the highest worker fatality rate (10.4 per 100,000).

Workers’ compensation claims 2020-21

• There were 130,195 serious workers’ compensation claims in Australia.
• Body stressing was the leading cause of serious workers’ compensation claims (37%).
• Mental health conditions account for a relatively small but increasing proportion of serious claims, rising from 6% of all serious claims in 2014-15 to 9% in 2019-20.
• In 2020-21p, there were 474 accepted workers’ compensation claims for COVID-19.
• The age group with the lowest frequency rate was workers aged 35-39 years, at 5.2 serious claims per million hours worked.

Read the Key Work Health and Safety Statistics, Australia 2022 report.

This safety bulletin provides safety advice for the NSW mining industry.

Issue
The NSW Resources Regulator has recently received two notifications of dangerous incidents involving water carts. In each case, the operator has identified that they were distracted at the time of the incident.

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Verify the effectiveness of Isolation

Department: Lead Smelter    Location: Filter Floor
Brief Description
While workers were conducting maintenance on the filter, the main isolator was observed to be locked in the ‘ON’ position, with the LCU switched to ‘Maintenance’. The lockout was found to be ineffective. The preliminary findings from the incident indicates that:

• multiple workgroups had locked onto the isolator, however the effectiveness of isolation was notverified
• the design of the isolator allows for it to be locked in ‘ON’ position
• there was no markings on the isolator to indicate ‘ON or OFF’ position.

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Incident Alert

There have been two near misses involving delivery of concrete to customer’s sites.

Incident 1 – A mixer driver filled a concrete skip on a customer’s site. A construction site operative attached a metal lifting chain to the concrete skip and then directed a plant operative to lift it with a loadall. When the skip was at a height of approximately 2m, the lifting chain snapped and the skip fell. It landed at the rear passenger side of the lorry. Fortunately, the driver had stepped away from the lifting zone. This had the potential to be very serious. The driver noted that after the incident, the site personnel then lifted the skip with a worn webbed sling.

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Three separate incidents have recently occurred onboard UK marine aggregate dredgers where individuals undertaking routine tasks on board received debris in their eyes.Two of these incidents were the result of undertaking activities where the risk assessment should have flagged up the need to wear the correct eye PPE. One was grinding and the other washing down the deck. In both cases, safety glasses were being worn when more appropriately goggles should have been required.

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Enrol Now

The Mining and Quarrying Occupational Health and Safety Committee conducts its work for the Minister for Industrial Relations under Schedule 2 of the Work Health and Safety Act utilising the funds provided by the Mining and Quarries Industries Fund. This money is available for use under Schedule 9 of the Return to Work Act 2014.

The new Industrial Relations Minister to which MAQOHSC will report, is the Hon Kyam Maher. As Minister Maher is the Attorney General, MAQOHSC should soon move to be hosted in the Attorney General’s Department.

STAFF

Introducing new staff, seconded to MAQOHSC from the Department of Treasury and Finance to provide services.

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