More Than 400 Serious Claims a Day: Why Critical Controls Need to Be Visible

Australia’s latest work health and safety data is a reminder that serious workplace harm remains a daily reality.

According to Safe Work Australia’s Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 report, 188 workers died from traumatic injuries in 2024, while 146,700 serious workers’ compensation claims were recorded in 2023–24. That equates to more than 400 serious claims every day.  

Safe Work Australia’s 2025 report also shows that serious harm is concentrated across a small number of high-risk sectors. Transport, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, public administration and safety, and health care and social assistance continue to feature prominently in national WHS data. Together, six industries accounted for 80% of work-related traumatic injury fatalities and 61% of serious workers’ compensation claims.

For WHS leaders, this raises an important question:

Are organisations simply recording harm after it occurs, or are they actively verifying that the controls designed to prevent serious harm are working?

The problem with relying on lag indicators

Workers’ compensation claims, incident rates and injury statistics are important measures. They help organisations understand where harm has occurred and where further attention may be required. But they are also lag indicators.

By the time a serious injury claim is lodged, a control has already failed, a person has already been harmed, and the business is already responding to the consequences.

This is where Critical Control Management becomes important.

Critical Control Management shifts the focus from asking, “What happened?” to asking:

What are our most serious risks, what controls are meant to prevent them, and how do we know those controls are working today?

The data points to known fatal risks

Safe Work Australia’s report shows that some mechanisms of harm continue to dominate fatality statistics. In 2024, vehicle incidents accounted for 42% of worker fatalities, followed by falls from height at 13%. Being hit by moving objects, being hit by falling objects, and being trapped by machinery or equipment were also key mechanisms.  

These are the types of risks that often lend themselves to a Critical Control Management approach.

For example:

• Vehicle interaction risks may rely on controls such as traffic management, segregation, seatbelts, journey management, exclusion zones and operator competency.  

• Working at height risks may rely on edge protection, fall arrest systems, permits, rescue planning and equipment inspections.  

• Moving plant and machinery risks may rely on guarding, isolation, lockout/tagout, maintenance controls and verification of safe operating procedures.  

The issue is rarely whether a control exists on paper. The real question is whether it is implemented, verified, effective and acted on when it fails.

From compliance activity to control effectiveness

Many organisations already have risk registers, procedures, inspections, audits and incident reports. However, these activities can become disconnected.

A risk may be documented in one system.
A control may be described in a procedure.
A verification may occur during an inspection.
A failed control may be raised as an action.
A dashboard may report overdue tasks.

But if these elements are not connected, it becomes difficult for leaders to answer a basic question:

Are our critical controls actually working?

A Critical Control Management framework brings these elements together by helping organisations:

1. Identify material unwanted events that could cause serious harm or fatality.  

2. Define the controls that prevent or mitigate those events.  

3. Select the controls that are truly critical.  

4. Set clear performance standards for each critical control.  

5. Verify those controls in the field.  

6. Escalate failures and assign corrective actions.  

7. Monitor performance through dashboards and reporting.  

This creates a clearer line of sight between high-risk work and the controls relied upon to keep people safe.

Why verification matters

A critical control is only valuable if it works when needed.

That means organisations need practical ways to verify controls in the field, not just review them during periodic audits. Verification can include supervisor checks, inspections, observations, photos, evidence capture, mobile forms, automated actions and escalation workflows.

This is especially important in high-risk industries where work is dynamic, geographically dispersed, or performed by contractors and frontline teams.

When verification is embedded into routine work, organisations can detect weak signals earlier. A failed inspection, a missing control, an overdue action or a repeated non-conformance can be identified before it contributes to a serious event.

Mental health claims also show the need for stronger control thinking

The report also highlights the continued rise of mental health-related claims. Safe Work Australia reported that mental health conditions accounted for 12% of all serious claims, with a 161% increase compared with 10 years ago. The median time lost from work for mental health claims was almost five times longer than for other injuries and diseases.  

While Critical Control Management is often associated with fatal and catastrophic physical risks, the same discipline of control effectiveness can help organisations think more clearly about psychosocial hazards.

For example, where psychosocial risks are identified, organisations should be asking:

• What are the controls?  

• Who owns them?  

• How are they monitored?  

• What evidence shows they are working?  

• What happens when indicators show the controls are failing?  

Whether the risk is vehicle interaction, working at height, machinery, fatigue, violence, aggression or workload pressure, the principle is the same: controls need to be defined, visible and verified.

The role of technology

Managing critical controls manually can quickly become difficult, particularly across multiple sites, business units, contractors and high-risk activities.

A digital Critical Control Management system can help organisations connect risk, controls, verification, actions and reporting in one place.

The myosh Critical Control Management functionality is designed to automate and embed critical control verification into everyday work processes, including inspections and observations. It helps organisations capture control status, verification history and failed-control actions, while providing dashboards and reporting to support decision-making.  

With myosh, organisations can use digital bowties, field verification, automated actions and dashboards to make critical controls more visible and accountable across the business.

Moving from hindsight to foresight

The latest WHS statistics show that Australia has made progress, but serious harm remains a significant challenge. Fatality rates have reduced over the past decade, yet hundreds of serious claims are still occurring every day.  

For organisations, the opportunity is to move from hindsight to foresight.

Incident data tells us where harm has occurred. Critical Control Management helps organisations understand whether the controls designed to prevent harm are working before an incident happens.

In high-risk environments, that visibility can make all the difference.

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