Safe Work Australia Statistics

Claims by mechanism of incident

Claim patterns can be analysed using the Type of Occurrence Classification System (TOOCS), which contains a series of codes providing information on the cause of the incident and the type of injury or disease sustained. Coding for the mechanism of incident is intended to identify the overall action, exposure or event that best describes the circumstances that resulted in the most serious injury or disease. More information on TOOCS can be found on the Safe Work Australia website

Indicator 10 shows the proportion of serious claims by the mechanism of incident over the past five years. Body stressing accounted for 39 per cent of the 104 770 serious claims in 2015-16. Claims due to Mental stress accounted for 6 per cent of claims, while claims due to Falls, slips and trips of a person accounted for 23 per cent.

Claims arising due to Falls, slips and trips of a person showed the highest reduction in claims (down 16 per cent) between the period 2011-12 to 2014-15, followed by Vehicle incidents (down 8 per cent).

Proportion of serious claims by mechanism of incident

** Other mechanisms of incident include Sound and pressure, Other multiple mechanisms of incident, Roll over, Slide or cave-in and Unspecified mechanisms of incident.

Claims by mechanism of incident and jurisdiction

Presented below is a comparison of the proportion of claims across the Australian jurisdictions for the eight different groups of mechanisms of incident. Due to the differences in the total number of serious claims across jurisdictions, proportions are a better measure for direct comparison between jurisdictions. Hence, the data reported here are comparisons of the proportion of claims for each mechanism of incident across different jurisdictions. The industry and occupation composition of each jurisdiction, however, can have an influence on the proportion of claims due to different mechanisms and therefore may explain some of the differences between jurisdictions.

Body stressing

Body stressing was the leading mechanism of incident for serious claims between 2011-12 and 2014-15 accounting for 41 per cent of the 110 280 serious claims in 2014-15.

The below chart shows that in 2014-15 South Australia had the highest proportion of claims (45.4 per cent) involving Body stressing, followed by the Australian Government (44. 7 per cent), Victoria (43.2 per cent) and Seacare (43.1 per cent), all of which were greater than the Australian average (40.8 per cent of claims). The Northern Territory had the lowest proportion of claims (27.1 per cent) involving Body stressing in 2014-15.

Proportion of serious claims involving body stressing by jurisdiction

Incidence rates of serious· claims by industry

* Includes all accepted workers’ compensation claims for an incapacity that results in a total absence from work of one working week or more excluding fatalities and journey claims.

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