Workers in electrotechnology trades have lodged the most workers compensation claims in recent years for electrical injuries.
The high number of injury claims are due to a lack of training, according to new research from Monash University.
Better electrical hazards training is needed to address the serious burden of workplace electrical injury, the research warns.
National injury surveillance and workers’ compensation data shows that more than 400 serious claims are made in Australia each year due to electric shocks at work, and electrical contact consistently ranks among the top 10 causes of occupational fatality.
By occupation, electrotechnology and telecommunications trades lodged the most electrical injury claims at 16.5 per cent, followed closely by labourers such as 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, compiled the findings after analysing coroner-reported deaths, emergency department presentations, hospital admissions and workers’ compensation claims between 2018 and 2024.
She said the findings showed many of those affected had likely never been trained to work around electricity.
“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,” Tomic said.
“Electricians are exposed more often, but they also work within stricter safety systems.
“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 study found workers aged 15 to 24 years had the highest emergency department presentation rate at 21.6 per 100,000 workers, and men accounted for 81.7 per cent of emergency department presentations.
Dr Tomic said that the figures are likely to underestimate the true burden, as none of the administrative datasets used were designed to capture electrical injury specifically, so cases may be missed where the injury was not correctly attributed.
The four data sources are also unlinked, meaning the same worker may appear in more than one dataset and the counts 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,” Tomic said.
Dr Tomic called for targeted safety induction for young and early-career workers, extending electrical hazard awareness training into industries that are not traditionally seen as high risk, and better follow-up after injury.
“Workplace safety regulators and policy-makers must do better by those who work around live electrical equipment,” she said.
Work-related injuries and illnesses cost the Australian economy an estimated $28.6 billion each year, according to modelling by Safe Work Australia.
Read the Monash research paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anzjph.2026.100586