TWO Gwent workers died and another 1,138 were injured in the line of their work in 2011/12, the latest Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures show.

The deaths happened in Newport and Caerphilly and were two of 18 in the whole of Wales during 2011/12, compared with 11 the year before.

Of these all the injuries in Gwent last year, 219 were major and 919 were minor, needing more than three days recovery time.

This compares to one death and 1,214 injuries during 2010/11, when there were 254 major injuries recorded and 960 minor ones.

The majority of work-related injuries have happened in Newport in the past two years when there were 782 in total and one death.

Caerphilly recorded one death and 618 injuries, Torfaen had 277 injuries, while there were 269 in Blaenau Gwent and 307 in Monmouthshire during the same period.

High risk injuries include construction, agriculture, manufacturing and waste and recycling – which make up more than half of the total 173 work related deaths in the UK for 2011/12.

Rosi Edwards, the HSE’s regional director for Wales is urging employers to make the safety of workers a top priority for 2013.

She said: "Each year, instead of enjoying the occasion, families of workers in Wales who failed to come home from work safely spend Christmas and the New Year thinking of absent loved ones.

"Hundreds of other workers who have had their lives changed forever by major injury will be experiencing difficulties of their own.

"When put into this kind of context, it is clear why health and safety in British workplaces needs to be taken seriously. I urge employers to tackle the real dangers that workers face rather than focussing on the trivial or mire themselves in pointless paperwork."

Information on tackling health and safety dangers in workplaces is available at hse.gov.uk