Injuries
Injuries in manufacturing are frequently severe and occasionally fatal.
7% of NSW employees are involved in manufacturing and the injury rate (54.5 per 1000 workers) is higher than the state average (28.1 per 1000 workers) costing $558 million over three years.
Fatalities
There were 24 fatalities in the three years between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2016 involving:
- vehicle incidents
- being hit by a moving object
- long term contact with chemicals.
Injuries
Across the industry, most injuries were:
- lacerations or open wounds
- soft tissue injuries due to trauma
- injuries or diseases affecting the hands, thumbs and fingers
- upper and lower back injuries or diseases.
And these injuries were caused by:
- being hit by falling objects
- musculus stress
- falls
- noise.
These injuries resulted in 40,827 workers compensation claims resulting in 218,236 weeks lost work costing $13,669 per claim on average.