According to SafeWork SA, South Australia’s workplace health and safety regulator, body stress injuries are sidelining more than 5000 South Australian workers every year.
This is resulting in average annual compensation costs in excess of $90 million.
The injury category, which includes muscle stress while lifting or carrying objects and repetitive stress injuries, has accounted for 36 per cent of all ReturnToWorkSA compensation claims since 2018.
South Australian body stressing claims reached 6035 in 2023 up 8 per cent on the five-year average of 5603.
This is double the number of claims for the next two biggest categories – being hit by moving objects and slips, trips and falls.
“The ReturnToWork SA data shows the need for more thorough risk assessment to identify hazardous manual tasks that enable effective control measures to be implemented,” SafeWork SA executive director Glenn Farrell said.
“Businesses have a primary duty of care to identify, minimise or eliminate the risk of worker injury.”
In response, SafeWork SA has launched a campaign to raise awareness about hazardous manual tasks and how to avoid body stressing injuries.
The mining and resources sector is known for involving tasks that can take a toll on the body. The SafeWork SA campaign includes a series of new pages on the dedicated to addressing these issues.
The resources include general information on musculoskeletal disorders, information specific to duty holders, risk management tips and training advice.
Six online workshops will also be held from November and into next year to help businesses understand the risks associated with musculoskeletal disorders and how to mitigate them.
Once a business attends one of the workshops, they are eligible for a visit from a SafeWork SA work health and safety advisor to assess their workplace and provide tips to reduce body stressing injury risk.
“The resources developed by SafeWork SA and the information sessions on offer are an opportunity to raise awareness about hazardous manual tasks and the importance of designing work activities that eliminate hazards and introducing adequate control measures that reduce the risk of injury,” Farrell said.
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