50 in 2024: Victoria's workplace fatalities figures

Transport, construction and agriculture were Victoria’s deadliest sectors in 2024, WorkSafe Victoria has revealed, also noting that workplace fatalities were spread across more than half of all industries and involved dozens of occupations. In all, 50 lives were lost in 2024, compared with 73 workplace fatalities in 2023.

Those who lost their lives in Victoria in 2024 included carpenters, delivery drivers, electricians, farmers and farm hands, firefighters, labourers, teachers, traffic controllers and truck drivers — WorkSafe Victoria Executive Director Health and Safety Sam Jenkin saying that the toll highlighted the fact that any workplace is susceptible to a tragedy, so it is essential for employers and workers to stay vigilant.

“Victoria is among the safest places to work in the world but it is simply unacceptable lives are still being lost in what are entirely preventable workplace incidents,” Jenkin said. “No family should suffer the devastation of losing a loved one at work and we remain unyielding in our commitment to working towards a future of zero workplace deaths.” The 2024 fatality toll includes 18 workers who died following a traumatic workplace incident and 12 workers who were killed in a traffic collision.

Last year, a further 17 people succumbed to a disease contracted over the course of their employment, with two workers lost to work-related medical complications and one worker dying as a result of a criminal offence. Jenkin said more than 25,500 workers were also injured seriously enough to have a claim for compensation accepted in 2024.

“For too many years we have continued to see workplace harm due to the same hazards in the same industries, which is why WorkSafe has set ambitious targets to challenge the status quo,” Jenkin said. “We are asking for the support and buy-in of the entire Victorian community — only together can we create safer workplaces that last for generations to come.”

Twelve successful prosecutions in 2024 came out of WorkSafe Victoria workplace fatalities investigations, including the first conviction under Victoria’s workplace manslaughter laws, resulting in $4.76 million in fines and costs being imposed by the courts.

Key insights from Victoria’s 2024 workplace fatalities data include that:

• in metropolitan Melbourne 33 deaths were recorded, including nine in the southern-metro area, while 17 fatalities occurred in regional Victoria — the Local Government Area with the most work-related deaths was Greater Dandenong, with five lives lost;
• the deadliest industry was transport, postal and warehousing with 12 fatalities, followed by construction with eight deaths, while in agriculture, forestry and fishing there were seven;
• the most dangerous occupation was labourer with 14 work-related deaths, followed by truck driver with four lives lost and electrician with three fatalities;
• vehicles and machinery were involved in 23 workplace fatalities, and vehicle incidents — both on and off-road — were the top cause again, accounting for 16 deaths;
• contact with or exposure to chemicals and substances claimed 15 lives, while eight worker fatalities were after being trapped or struck by machinery and equipment;
• more than half of those who died were working for small businesses and males accounted for all but three of those who lost their lives — with close to two-thirds aged 55 or older at the time of their death.
   

Image credit: iStock.com/KishoreJ. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.