Five weeks ago, Safe Work Australia (SWA) reported the lowest annual traumatic injury fatality rate on record. Since then, Victoria has reported its worst month for workplace fatalities in more than a decade, the Queensland mining sector has reported its highest fatality rate since 1997, and the 2015 national work-related death toll has surged.

The SWA report found that 188 Australian workers died from work injuries in 2014 – the lowest number since the report series began in 2003 (see related article).

Federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said on the release of the report that the "downward trend is a positive sign that Australian businesses and workers are committed to keeping their workplaces safe", while Victoria declared itself the "nation's safest state" after another SWA report found it had the lowest serious injury and disease claims rate in the country.

But Victoria's record was quickly marred by five worker deaths in a "horrifying" nine-day period (see related article), and WorkSafe Victoria this week announced that November was the worst month for workplace fatalities in the State in more than 10 years, with eight deaths in total.

The "tragic" month ended with a 41-year-old male worker being fatally struck by a forklift at a poultry farm near Geelong on Monday night, the regulator said, adding that it was investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, SWAs worker fatalities webpage shows that as of Tuesday, 173 Australian workers have been killed while at work since the start of 2015 – some 21 more than when OHS Alert last reported on the toll in mid-November (see related article), and four more than for the same period in 2013.

And as reported by OHS Alert yesterday, the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines' latest annual health and safety report showed that six mine workers were killed in the 11 months to March 2015 – the worst fatality record for the sector since 1997 (see bottom of this related article).

WorkSafe WA also issued a safety warning recently after five Western Australian workers were killed in a 10 day period in November (see related article).