There were 53 work-related fatal incidents in 2020 according to the annual review of workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), with the agriculture sector the only sector to have seen an increase in deaths last year.
Overall, this is an increase from the 47 fatal incidents in 2019, and the highest number of fatal incidents since 56 were recorded in 2015.
Of 53 work-related fatal incidents, 23 (43.4%) occurred in agriculture, forestry and fishing alone, while 15 (28.3%) occurred in construction.
There were 139 incidents reported to the HSA by the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in 20120.
Workplace deaths
According to the HSA, for agriculture, forestry and fishing, this follows a similar pattern to recent years, with half of all fatal incidents in the five-year period since 2016 occurring in this sector.
Construction fatalities, however, have shown considerable variation in recent years, dropping to five in 2017 and showing increases since then.
More than half of all fatal incidents in 2020 occurred to self-employed people (28), with 12 fatalities occurring to employees and 13 to non-workers.
Fatal incidents happened to victims from all age groups, but the highest number involved people aged 65 years and over (34%).
12 of these victims aged 65 years and older were in agriculture, forestry and fishing, with three in construction.
The proportion of fatal incidents involving older victims aged 65 years or more has increased in recent years, with 12.5% in 2015, increasing to 34% in 2020.
All but three of the 53 victims of fatal incidents were male. The three female victims were non-workers.
Non-fatal incidents
In 2020 there was a substantial decline in the number of non-fatal incidents reported to the HSA in comparison with 2019.
The authority has said that it is likely that this decline was largely due to the public health measures that were implemented in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fewer non-fatal incidents were reported in every economic sector except agriculture, forestry and fishing.
The greatest decline was in accommodation and food service activities, which reported 107 non-fatal incidents in 2020, compared with 254 in 2019, a decrease of almost 60%.
Large declines in reported incidents were also noted in arts, entertainment and recreation (42.9%), education (42.1%) and transportation and storage (41.0%).
Manual handling and falls were the most common triggers in 2020, as they have been in all years since 2016.
This shows that these two triggers have consistently been amongst the most prevalent causes of non-fatal incidents in recent years, according to the report.
Triggers for workplace deaths
The most common triggers associated with fatal incidents in 2020 were loss of control of means of transport (30.2%), fall from height (13.2%), fall of object from above onto victim (11.3%) and victim entering dangerous area (11.3%).