Safe Work Australia has published a new WHS profile of electricians to help illustrate the nature of risks they most frequently encounter while performing their duties.
Using Safe Work Australia’s Beta Occupational Hazards Dataset and National Dataset for Compensation-based Statistics, alongside ABS Census data, this profile highlights how electricians have a significantly higher level of exposure to job hazards and body positioning hazards compared to other occupations.
Key insights from the profile include:
- Over the last 10 years, ‘body stressing’ has consistently been the most common type of work-related injury or illness for electricians (an average of 35.1% of all serious claims during the period).
- The frequency of serious claims for electricians that experienced ‘electrocution, shock from electric current’ is approximately 6 times greater than the average across all occupations.
- Installing electrical equipment may involve working on rooftops, ladders or elevated structures, making ‘falls from a height’ another risk that disproportionately affects electricians.
- Tragically, these hazards have led to fatal injuries. Over the past 10 years, 44 Electricians died from traumatic injuries at work. Of these, 23 (or 52%) were a result of electrocution, and a further 9 resulted from falls from a height.
These insights can help persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) and workers better understand and manage the risks of electrical work.