I HAVE been talking about tradie health over the past couple of weeks.
It is only through continual discussion, education and action that we, as a community of workers and employers, can help tradies return home safely each day.
How do you think Ipswich compares against the state average in trade related occupation injuries and workers’ compensation claims?
The most recent publication of the Ipswich Region Work Health and Safety Profile was based on a three-year review of the period 2015-2017.
It showed the following, which may be of interest to readers:
- Construction (7 per cent) and manufacturing (13 per cent) roles accounted for 20 per cent of employment;
- Ipswich had a slightly greater return to work rate following injury (94.5 per cent) than the state (94 per cent);
- Ipswich had a lower average rate of work days lost per injury (41.4 days compared with 45);
- Ipswich had a lower average claim rate per 1000 workers in both construction (42.5) and manufacturing (73.7) when compared to the state average (50.4 and 85.6);
- Our automotive and engineering trade workers fell within the top five high-risk occupations coming in at number 3;
- “Body stress” was by far the greatest cause of injury to our workers causing 33 per cent of injuries.
It is good to see the Ipswich region statistics better than state averages, but there is a lot that can be done to reduce the number of trade worker injuries.
Until next week – Keep it Legal!
Katie Caldow
kcaldow@walkerpender.com.au
*The legal information in this article is of a general nature only and not intended to be legal advice to rely upon.