Introduction
The problem of workplace injuries is very topical for Australia. Among the many extreme events greatest socio-economic importance have accidents at work, which are accompanied by injuries of varying severity, disability and death. Accident at work is defined as the impact on the worker of hazardous production factors employed in the performance of job duties or job supervision.
Occupational injuries is not just a problem in need of resolution safety, but is also a good opportunity to study the interaction between society and technology environment, weakening or strengthening their relationship as a result of unforeseen accidents. To design an optimal solution to the problem of prevention of occupational injuries, there is required understanding of the nature of industrial accidents (Kumar, 2011). There are rarely sudden traumatic incidents, but rather the ones that develop gradually.
Discussion
Figure 1. Serious claims: incidence rates by industry, 2011–12p (Safe Work Australia, 2014).
However, understanding the problems without understanding their causes cannot give a complete picture of the problem of injuries in the workplace.
Occupational injury is an injury received by a worker in manufacturing probably due to non-compliance health and safety requirement. Repetition of accidents associated with the production is called occupational injuries.
It should be noted that work-related injuries in the working person causing social and economic consequences, on the one hand, physiological and moral - on the other. Social damage is primarily deterioration of human health and the reduction of its efficiency, the appearance of a negative attitude towards their work, profession, social and psychological deterioration of relations in the team.
Economic damage suffered by the organization, industry or national economy as a whole, can be determined quite accurately - it is measured by material costs to eliminate the impact of occupational injury. Moral damage associated with trauma, with nothing comparable and not replenished, especially in cases with disability or death (Xiang et al., 2013).
If we return to the problems in Australia, we can see from Fig.2, Australia shows better indicators in fatalities at work, than New Zealand, but there are many other leading developed countries that have a better situation.
Figure 2. Comparison of Australia’s work-related injury fatality rate with the best performing countries standardised by industry (Safe Work Australia, 2014).
If we consider the number of incidents by gender (see Fig. 3), we can see that the number of injuries among men is higher, than in case of women. At the same time, it is clear that there is a positive dynamics in the number of incidents over the years.
Figure 3. Work-related injuries and Workers: Number by sex, 2005–06 and 2009–10 (Safe Work Australia, 2012).
When we look at the data on workplace injuries by age (see Fig. 4), it is clear that over the years the situation is also changing for the better in all the age groups except for the group 45-54. This group overall shows the greatest number of injuries among all the other age groups, the second of them being 35-44.
Figure 4. Work-related injuries: Number of injured workers by age group, 2005–06 and 2009–10 (Safe Work Australia, 2012).
In Fig. 5 we can see the complete picture of age by sex statistics in workplace injuries in Australia.
Figure 5: Work-related injuries: Frequency rates (injuries per million hours worked) by age group and sex (Safe Work Australia, 2012).
Figure 6. Incidence rate of fatalities: achieved versus reduction required to meet target (Safe Work Australia, 2014).
Figure 7. Work-related injuries: Percentage of injured workers by days or shifts absent by age group, 2009–10 (Safe Work Australia, 2012).
Figure 8. Cost of work-related injury and disease by severity, 2008–09 (Safe Work Australia, 2014).
It is also possible to consider three main factors most contributing to the workplace injuries – sprain/strain, chronic joint/muscle condition, cut/open wound (Fig. 9, 10).
Figure 9. Male workers: Percentage of injuries by top three injuries incurred by age group, 2009–10 (Safe Work Australia, 2012).
Figure 10. Female workers: Percentage of injuries by top three injuries incurred by age group, 2009–10 (Safe Work Australia, 2012).
On the level of Australia, there are a number of initiatives and adopted strategies that deal with the problem. One of the most important of them is the Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022, which has four desired outcomes and three targets of the national level. The outcomes are the following: reduced exposure to risks and hazards; improved safety infrastructure and national work health; reduced incidents of workplace injury, illness and death; improved hazard controls.
Another similar regulation in Australia is the Model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act, which is all about harmonization of work environment and safety law (Norton et al., 2012). On the international scale there are various organizations dealing with the issues of workplace injuries, among them International Labour Organization, which creates and implements various initiatives around the world to change the global situation for the better.
Conclusion
The statistics and research provided in this paper show how topical the problem of workplace injury is for Australia, how many people suffer from this problem and how much it costs to the government. It is necessary to keep to the international and national recommendations to change situation in the country for better.
References
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Xiang, J., Bi, P., Pisaniello, D., Hansen, A. and Sullivan, T., 2013. Association between high temperature and work-related injuries in Adelaide, South Australia, 2001–2010. Occupational and environmental medicine, oemed-2013, p.67.
