Government report on workplace fatalities

The "Notified Fatalities Collection', initiated by the federal government's Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC), obtains records of Australian work-related fatalities for both employees and self-employed workers.

Each state and territory has OHS legislation that requires work-related deaths, including bystander fatalities, such as visitors to a worksite or passers-by, to be reported to their OHS authority, which are passed on to ASCC for entry into the "Notified Fatalities' database.

Each year, two reports are released on the ASCC website. One summarises work-related fatalities that occurred between July and December in the previous year, while the other provides a detailed analysis of the work-related fatalities that occurred during the previous financial year.

The "Annual Notified Fatalities Report 2005"06' is available on the "Statistical data and reports' page of ASCC's website - www.ascc.gov.au - providing detailed analysis of the 157 work-related notified fatalities that occurred during the period.

The analysis shows that four industries accounted for almost two-thirds of all work-related fatalities: 22% at workplaces primarily engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishing, 17% in construction, 13% in manufacturing and 12% in transport and storage.

The occupation group "intermediate production and transport workers' accounted for 31% of all notified work-related fatalities.

The most prevalent cause of fatality was falls from a height - 27 of the fatalities. Other fatalities were: being hit by moving objects (24), vehicle accidents (21), being hit by falling objects (20) and electrocution (17).