The longer an injured Australian worker stays away from the job, the less likely they are to ever go back – and a new report from Sedgwick argues that how employers respond in the days immediately after an injury occurs has more bearing on that outcome than the injury itself. The report, “The Business Case for Early Injury Intervention,” compiles Australian government and regulator data from 2019 to 2025 to assess workplace injury trends, return-to-work (RTW) rates, and the financial consequences of delayed or ineffective injury management. Its central finding is that early, structured employer involvement consistently produces better recovery outcomes – and that the window for effective action is narrow.
More than 146,700 serious workers’ compensation claims were filed in Australia in 2023-24, or more than 400 per day. Around 3.5% of the working population sustains a work-related injury or illness each year, and 21.3% of serious claims result in 13 or more weeks away from work. The share of claims involving psychological conditions has grown sharply. Mental health-related injuries now represent 10% to 11% of serious claims – approximately double the proportion recorded a decade ago – and they carry substantially lower RTW rates than physical injuries. Safe Work Australia data show that workers with physical injuries return to work at around 90.2%, while those with psychological injuries do so at just 76.5%.
Australia’s overall national RTW rate has moved in the same direction as psychological claim volumes: down. It fell from 91.6% in 2021 to 88.9% in 2025, a trend Sedgwick connects to the rising caseload of mental health claims, which involve longer absences and more recovery complexity than most physical conditions. At the economy-wide level, work-related injury and illness drains an estimated $28.6 billion from Australia each year. Safe Work Australia estimates that eliminating such injuries would add around 185,500 full-time equivalent workers to the labour force and lift average wages across occupations by 1.3%.
Sedgwick’s report draws on Comcare and Safe Work Australia data to map the relationship between absence duration and recovery likelihood. The pattern is steep: a worker still off the job after 20 days has roughly a 70% chance of eventually returning. By the time 70 days have elapsed, that probability falls to around 35%. Psychological injury claims are particularly sensitive to delays. The report notes that late or absent employer support in these cases is strongly associated with extended absence, more complex claims, and higher total costs. Psychological claimants have a median time off work more than five times that of other injury types. The data suggest that the financial case for early action is tied directly to this time curve. Each additional week of absence compounds the probability of a claim escalating into a prolonged, costly one – a dynamic that the report argues makes early employer involvement a matter of cost management as much as duty of care.
Two figures in the report stand out when it comes to employer behaviour. Workers who had contact and support from their employer before formally lodging a workers’ compensation claim returned to work at a rate of 51%, compared with 27.2% for those who received no such support – a difference of nearly two to one, according to Safe Work Australia’s 2023 data. Documented return-to-work plans show a similarly pronounced effect. Workers with a formal plan in place returned at a rate of 94%, versus 81.7% for those without one. “Early intervention is one of the most effective ways organisations can improve outcomes following a workplace injury. By engaging employees early, providing immediate guidance and support, and removing barriers to care, organisations can help people recover sooner and return to work safely and confidently,” said Christina Wunder, head of Sedgwick Health Solutions in Australia.
The report outlines four areas that Australian government data consistently identify as central to effective injury management: acting early after an incident, building individual RTW plans, keeping the injured worker connected to the workplace throughout recovery, and addressing the full range of factors – physical, psychological, and social – that affect how people heal. On the early intervention front, the report points to the role of around-the-clock registered nurse access as a mechanism for providing clinical guidance at the time of injury, before extended absence sets in. The report argues that this type of immediate professional involvement can reduce unnecessary time off, support modified duties where appropriate, and improve the odds of a sustained return.
The report positions workplace injury management not as a regulatory floor to clear, but as an operational discipline with measurable financial consequences. Organisations that build RTW capability into their day-to-day practices stand to reduce premium pressure, shorten claim durations, and retain workforce capacity, according to the report’s analysis. With psychological injury claims still rising and national RTW rates still falling, the report concludes that the cost of inaction is likely to grow – and that structured, workplace-led responses to injury will become more, not less, consequential for Australian employers in the years ahead.
