The Cost of Work-related Injury and Illness for Australian Employers, Workers and the Community: 2008–09 Canberra

With the exception of the Safe Work Australia logo, this report is licensed by Safe Work Australia under a Creative Commons 3.0 Australia Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit In essence, you are free to copy, communicate and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the work to Safe Work Australia and abide by the other licensing terms. The report should be attributed as 'The cost of work-related injury and illness for Australian employers, workers, and the community, 2008–09'. Enquiries regarding the licence and any use of the report are welcome at: Disclaimer The information provided in this document can only assist you in the most general way. This document does not replace any statutory requirements under any relevant State and Territory legislation. Safe Work Australia accepts no liability arising from the use of or reliance on the material contained on this document, which is provided on the basis that Safe Work Australia is not thereby engaged in rendering professional advice. Before relying on the material, users should carefully make their own assessment as to its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. To the extent that the material in this document includes views or recommendations of third parties, such views or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of Safe Work Australia nor do they indicate a commitment to a particular course of action. In 1995, an Industry Commission study 1 estimated that only 25 per cent of the total cost of work–related injury and disease was due to the direct costs of work-related incidents. The remaining 75 per cent was accounted for by indirect costs such as lost productivity, loss of income and quality of life. Using the 1992–93 financial year Australian National Accounts 2 estimate of $4.83 billion in payments to household from workers' compensation schemes as an estimate of direct costs, led to an estimate of total cost of work-related injury and disease of $20 billion for the 1992–93 financial year. The Industry Commission methodology defined a range of indirect cost items covering various economic agents (employers, workers and the community) and level of severity. The average costs associated with each category were combined with estimates of the number of work-related incidents to produce an estimate of total costs. In 2004, as part of its strategy of communicating information …