Executive Summary

Return to work results

QLD continues to perform very close to the national average for RTW results, and in terms of both RTW and durable RTW has followed the national trend downwards over the last four years. In 2008-09 QLD's average length of durable return to work rose to meet the Australian average, of approximately 140 days,and the length of non-durable RTW (approximately 85 days) was also in line with the national average.

A majority of workers from QLD - nearly 90% in 2008-09 - who returned to work before they felt ready to do so cited injury or pain as the reason they were unready to return to work. This figure has increased steadily since 2006-7, when it was 80%.

In 2008-09 the proportion of injured QLD workers who returned to the same employer jumped nearly 10% to meet the the national average of 84%.

Return to work influences

Since 2005/06, the proportion of injured QLD workers to receive a RTW plan has increased from 39% to 46% in 2008-09. However, the 2008-09 figure still falls short of the national average of 53%.

In 2008-09, more than 1/4 (27%) of QLD workers were able to identify a person who made it harder to RTW, slightly lower than the national average of 30%. Both rates have increased slightly since 2007-08.

QLD workers are very close to the Australian average when it came to perceptions pertaining to workplace culture, rating the importance of work to them more highly than they rate measures of whether they are valued at work and supported to return to work.

In 2008-09 87% of injured QLD workers found it easy to get the information necessary to place a claim, widening the gap between the QLD rate and the national rate, which has been 81% since 2006-07. Since 2005-06 the proportion of QLD workers who find it simple and very simple to place a claim has risen slightly to just over 80% in 2008-09. The corresponding period has seen a similar decrease in the proportion of workers who find the process complicated.

In 2008/09, fewer non-working injured QLD workers (60%) were not working for injury related reasons and more because they had either left employment, or been retrenched or dismissed. In 2005-06 the proportion of injured QLD workers not working for injury-related reasons was close to 80%.

Rating of customer services

On all insurer performance measures with the exception of 'advice about rights', QLD workers rated their insurer slightly than the national average in 2008-09. Overall, QLD workers gave the insurer an average rating of 3.8/5, compared to 3.6/5 nationally.

Rehabilitation services

QLD workers are much more likely than their national counterparts to participate in rehabilitation, however over the last four years the cost of rehabilitation for QLD workers has been approximately $500 below the national average

Previous claim experience

QLD workers are more likely to have a previous workers' compensation claim than the Australian average. In 2008-09 nearly 35% of QLD workers with a previous claim had time off work because of that earlier claim, above the Australian average of 31%.