Australia loses 41,194 work years annually due to work-related injuries, diseases, and mental health conditions, according to a new study.
This equates to over 41,000 lost jobs each year, highlighting the significant impact of workplace-related health issues on the national workforce.
A research team from Monash University developed the ‘Working Years Lost’ (WYL) metric to measure the national burden of work-based injury, illness, and disease resulting in compensation claims.
Published in the Medical Journal of Australia, the study aimed to quantify the lost working time and its distribution across various demographics and types of injuries and diseases.
Professor Alex Collie from Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine stated that this was the first time such comprehensive figures had been compiled.
“Normally we track injury and disease at work by counting the number of people making compensation claims or the amount of time they spend off work,” he said.
“This new measure combines those two concepts and presents it as the number of people off work for a full year.”
The WYL metric offers a more nuanced view of the challenges posed by workplace injuries and illnesses.
“The impact of some types of injury and disease are more accurately represented in this new metric,” Professor Collie explained.
“For instance, mental health conditions have a much higher percentage of working years lost than of workers’ compensation claims. This is because we take the long time off work for each mental health claim into account, whereas simply counting claims does not do this.”
The study analyzed data from workers with accepted compensation claims and receiving wage replacement benefits for time off work, covering the period from July 2012 to June 2017.
Male workers incurred 25,367 (61.6%) WYL, while female workers accounted for 15,827 (38.4%). Workers aged over 45 years contributed 21,763 (52.8%) WYL, despite making up 44.1% of accepted claims.
Traumatic injuries led to the highest number of WYL annually, with 16,494 (40%), followed by musculoskeletal disorders (8,547 WYL; 20.7%) and mental health conditions (5,361 WYL; 13%).
“Annually, compensable occupational injury and disease in Australia results in a substantial burden of lost working time, equivalent to over 41,000 lost jobs,” Professor Collie emphasized.
“The distribution of burden reflects the higher labour force participation of males, slower rehabilitation in older workers, and the relative impact of common occupational injuries and diseases. Effective occupational health surveillance, policy development, and resource allocation will benefit from population-based monitoring of working time loss.”