Manufacturers accounted for around one in five accepted workplace compensation claims for electrical injuries in Victoria between 2018-19 and 2022-23, according to new research from Monash University.
The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, analysed coroner-reported deaths, emergency department presentations, hospital admissions and workers’ compensation claims to examine the burden of work-related electrical injuries between 2018 and 2024.
Of 285 accepted workers’ compensation claims for electrical injuries during the period, manufacturing workers accounted for around 20 per cent. Construction, including electrical services, represented 16.1 per cent of claims.
By occupation, electrotechnology and telecommunications trades workers recorded the largest share of claims at 16.5 per cent, followed by labourers, including freight handlers and shelf fillers, at 13 per cent.
Lead researcher Dr Dee Tomic, from the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said electrical injuries were not limited to electricians.
“There is an assumption that electrical injury is an electrician’s problem, but a large share of these injuries are happening to workers who have most likely never been trained to work around electricity,” Dr Tomic said.
“Other workers may encounter live electrical equipment unpredictably and without that protection, which really highlights the need for improved training to prevent further injury.”
The research identified 2,516 emergency department presentations and 313 hospital admissions for work-related electrical injuries in Victoria between 2018-19 and 2023-24.
Workers aged 15 to 24 had the highest emergency department presentation rate, at 21.6 per 100,000 workers, while men accounted for 81.7 per cent of presentations.
Dr Tomic said the figures may underestimate the overall burden because the administrative datasets were not specifically designed to capture electrical injuries. The datasets were also unlinked, meaning the same worker could appear in more than one source and the figures cannot be added together.
“Linking these data sources, and capturing the circumstances in which each injury occurs, would give us a much clearer picture of where safety systems are breaking down,” she said.
The researchers called for targeted safety induction for young and early-career workers, broader electrical hazard awareness training across industries, and improved follow-up after workplace injuries.
“While electrical injuries are less common than many other workplace injuries, they are associated with disproportionately severe outcomes, including burns, cardiac and neurological complications, and death,” Dr Tomic said.
Public Health Association of Australia Chief Executive Officer Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin also supported broader training, saying the findings highlighted an issue extending beyond Victoria.
“This data is unlikely to be unique to Victoria and highlights a national problem,” Slevin said.
“An expansion of the reach of training on working safely around electricity must be a priority across all industries, including those not traditionally seen as high risk.”
