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Globally, 313 million people experienced a Work-Related Injury or Illness (WRI) in 2010 that resulted in four or more days off work. The costs of workers’ compensation, treatment, lost wages, training replacement workers, and damage associated with WRI, was estimated at equivalent to 4% of global GDP (International Labour Organization, 2014).

In Australia, an estimated 532 thousand workers experienced a WRI in 2013/14, or 43 in every thousand workers (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014). The cost to the economy was $61.8 billion in 2012/13, or 4.1% of GDP; three-quarters (74%) of this cost is assumed by the worker (Safe Work Australia, 2015c). One-third (31%) of injured workers who took ten days off work had not achieved sustained Return to Work (RTW) in the seven to nine months following workers compensation claim acceptance (The Social Research Centre, 2014).