Half of $60 Billion Workplace Injury Cost Due to Overwork, Stress

Out of the $60 billion annual cost of workplace injuries across Australia, about half are due to overwork and stress.

The report, titled Safe Work Australia, was based on workplace deaths, injuries and ailments which have a combined value equivalent to 5 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

It found that while workplace fatalities wend down to a record low of 216 during the global financial crisis, the number is on the rise again.

For workplace illness, the cost was broken down into $9.6 billion among managers and administrators, $7.9 billion to labourers and $10.6 billion to tradespeople. The high share of stress and overwork as main causes of injuries and ailments, is an indicator that people are working longer hours since the global financial crisis.

Thus, mechanisms linked with disease such as sound and pressure, biological factors and mental stress, have higher unit cost than those connected with injuries such as falls and trips. Mental stress made up 4 per cent of the cases but contributed 9 per cent to the total cost.

That explains why job burnout is the top reason cited by workers for taking a sick leave even if they are not ill.

The release of the report on Tuesday is timed with the announcement by Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten of a campaign to encourage workers to speak up about safety and a call for annual reporting to Parliament.

The study prompted Sane Australia, a national mental health charity, to call on employers to think of ways on how they could better ways to support their employees as mental illness becomes more common and affecting one out of every five Australians yearly.