Using workers’ compensation data, the ASCC has found that the five most common causes of work-related injuries are body stressing from manual handling or repetitive movements (42 per cent of all claims), falls on the same level, falls from height, and hitting or being hit by moving objects.77 The most common causes of work-related fatalities are vehicle accidents, being hit by moving objects, falls from a height, past exposure to asbestos and contact with electricity.78
ASCC data also indicate that the most common causes of compensated occupational disease are mental stress and exposure to noise and to chemicals or other substances.
As noted in Chapter 2 the industries with the highest rates of compensated claims are manufacturing, transport and storage, agriculture, forestry and fishing, and construction.
How regulation affects OHS performance
In 1995, the IC inquiry stated that employers and their employees have insufficient incentive to prevent injury and disease at work by themselves. For this reason, governments regulate health and safety and implement programs to inform, educate and train people as a way to steer employers and employees to better performance. The inquiry concluded that there is considerable scope in Australia to reduce the human and economic loss associated with injury and disease at work via better regulation.79
The views of the IC are supported by a significant body of research in Australia and overseas which recognise that regulation, supported by a balanced mixture of advice, enforcement and incentives, is the most important government driven factor in achieving better occupational health and safety performance.
This assumption was supported by Professor Neil Gunningham in his review of the literature and practice to identify categories of factors motivating chief executive officers (CEOs) and supervisors in achieving better OHS performance.80 The results of Professor Gunningham’s review indicated regulation as the most important motivator of behavioural change and identified personal liability, reinforced by credible enforcement, as the single most important motivator of CEOs. The review also identified the importance, not only of regulation, but also of the perceived legitimacy of that regulation and its effect as a moral guideline.
The importance of a balanced mix of regulation, advice, enforcement and business incentives was also identified in research commissioned by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE).81 The purpose of the research was to build an evidence base on what interventions can improve health and safety and compliance and what factors determine the success. The results indicated that enforcement is an effective means of securing compliance, creating an incentive for self-compliance and a fear of adverse business impacts such as reputational damage in all sectors and sizes of organisations. The research shows that advice and information is less effective in the absence of the possibility of enforcement.
It also revealed that enforcement supported by advice and guidance is considered to be of equal benefit to health hazards, such as noise, passive smoking, manual handling and stress, as it is to safety risks.
