Stress Stressed out ... the number one reason for work sick leave. Photo: Jessica Shapiro
MENTAL health issues have overtaken physical injury as the cause of the longest absences from work.
About 55 per cent of people who suffer stress or other mental conditions on the job are taking five or more sick days in a row, figures from the Bureau of Statistics publication, Australian Social Trends, June 2011, show.
And research to be released this year shows that workers with mild levels of depression take twice as many sick days. About 20 per cent of the working population experience mild levels of depression, the research indicates.
Fractures are the next largest category of workplace absence, with 54 per cent of those with broken bones away for a week or more.
Workers off sick with a job-related mental disorder take an average of 10.8 weeks off, and experts say workplace bullying and harassment, as well as heavy workloads, are leading to the rise in mental stress claims.
The bureau report also shows:
53 out of every 1000 workers suffer a work-related injury or illness - about 640,000 workers a year.
Work-related injuries and illnesses cost about $60 billion a year.
The accommodation and food services industry has the highest injury rate - 84 per 1000 employees.
About 4.8 per cent of compensation claims compiled by Safe Work Australia - about 61,600 workers - were for mental disorders. The median payout for psychological injury was $16,300.
Separate data for federal public servants show there has been a 54 per cent increase in mental stress claims in the past five years.
Comcare, the federal work health and safety regulator, said while injury compensation claims by government workers fell in the same period, it is concerned at the growing proportion of claims for workplace stress.
Neil Quarmby, general manager for Work Health and Safety at Comcare, said mental stress claims in the past 12 months accounted for close to 22 per cent of all serious claims involving a week or more off work.
Mr Quarmby said psychosocial risk factors must be urgently addressed by employers and that bosses should know how to identify signs of mental health problems among workers.
Maureen Dollard, an expert in work stress and director of the Centre for Applied Psychological Research at the University of South Australia, said the main factors leading to stress are work pressure and bullying.
Employees are pressured by the ''relentless drive'' towards productivity increases, Professor Dollard said. ''It's all about the quantity of work, rather than the quality of it.
''It's taking its toll. It's dehumanising. Managers are after short-term productivity gains and don't really value the worker any more.''
She said managers need to be aware of the priority they give to psychological health versus productivity.
''We are on this mad cycle of work intensification, globalisation, competition. Unless people start to pull back and think more about the welfare of the workers, it will become a serious public health issue.''
Professor Dollard said early indications of work stress research by the centre, soon to be published, indicates that people who experience mild levels of depression have twice as many sick days as those who do not.
The research, to be published this year and based on responses from 3000 workers, indicates about 20 per cent of the working population experience mild depression.