Workers off injured for 19.25 days

TOOWOOMBA Regional Council’s injured staff spent an average of 19 days off work in the year to January, which is triple the target set by the council.

Statistics from the TRC’s own reports put the lost time injury duration rate (LTIDR) for injured staff at 19.25 days for the year to January, up from 17.8 days in the year to December.

This is well above the target set by the council of seven days.

But people and organisation development portfolio leader Cr Megan O’Hara Sullivan described the new figures as “outliers”, and were not reflective of the TRC’s safety record.

“The majority of incidents that occur are attributable to activities that carry inherently high injury-risk factors, for example construction and infrastructure maintenance works,” she said.

“Most injures relate to body stress injuries occurring in the neck, torso, back, arm or hand.

“This latest figure is outside Council’s LTIDR target of seven days, although it should be noted that this result is considered an outlier and driven by a small number of injury cases, albeit with longer duration times.”

Cr O’Hara Sullivan said the TRC had consistently had lower long-term lost time injury frequency rates than the averages across local government in Queensland.