Workers’ compensation dataset

2.7.1 Overview

The Tasmanian Rehabilitation and Workers Compensation Act 1988 (the Act) covers all Tasmanian employers and mandates specific administrative actions concerning injuries and illnesses reported in the workplace. One of these actions is the forwarding of all content from compensation claim forms submitted by employees to the regulatory authority responsible for administering the Act,

WorkCover Tasmania. WorkCover Tasmania maintains a centralised database of all compensation claims in this State. Similar forms of legislation are implemented in each Australian state albeit with different compensation claim forms and data capture requirements. Data from each state are regularly compiled and forwarded to the national body responsible for collating statistics on workplace illnesses and injuries, SafeWork Australia. These data are then centrally retained within the National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics (NDS) and form the basis of Australian statistics on work-related injuries and diseases. SafeWork Australia sets the strategy for work health and safety in this country, develops and implements related policies and legislation, conducts research and reports on relevant statistics.

As the study described in Chapter 4 evolved, significant questions arose about the content of the dataset and systems relating to stress claims. These questions led to a conceptual review of workers compensation structures and systems in Tasmania, which focused on stress claims and is reported in the commentary in Appendix D. The process for this review is described later in this section.

2.7.2 Stress claims

Stress-related claims (stress claims) were derived from the ‘mental   diseases’   category for accepted claims in the WorkCover dataset, which includes claims for anxiety or stress disorders, depression, anxiety and depression combined, reactions to stressors, unspecified mental diseases, and post-traumatic stress disorder   (PTSD).   All   other   types   of   claims   were   defined   as   ‘not-stress-related’   (NSR).

2.7.3 Data extraction and variables

For the study described in Chapter 4, a de-identified dataset on all workers compensation claims submitted by Tasmanian Government employees during the period from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2011 was sourced from WorkCover Tasmania in May 2013. This start date of 1 July 2007 was established to coincide with the introduction of major changes in compensation legislation and its regulations in Tasmania [48].

The workers compensation dataset included variables for type of claim (mental diseases, other illnesses and injuries), claim report year, age, sex, Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) code, leave days, type of cost, date of payment and mechanism of injury.

At the time of data extraction, all ongoing claims were excluded from the index year, however the dataset did not contain identifying features needed to establish whether new claims were aggravated (changed from one type of illness or injury to another) or recurrent. A total of 5851 new claims were extracted. A report to the Tasmanian Government describing compensation data is presented in Appendix C.

2.7.4 Claim characteristics and costs

Based upon advice from WorkCover Tasmania, accepted claims were defined as those claims with attributed costs. These claims notionally identified cases where the Tasmanian Government had accepted responsibility for the workplace injury  or  illness,  and  were  arguably  ‘proven’  to  have  been  caused  by  a  factor  in   the work environment.

A  ‘claim   duration’  variable  was  created  by  calculating   a  notional   ‘closed  date’   where no further claims for costs had been made within a 6-month period. Costs are  defined  as  ‘everything  paid  out  in  a  financial  year,  regardless  of  claim  report   year’.     Cost   variables   included   payments   to   doctors   (including   psychiatrists),   hospitals, vocational rehabilitation services, allied health providers, wages, miscellaneous (e.g. travel, accommodation), investigation and legal expenses (borne by the employer). The costs presented in Chapter 4 are net costs in Australian dollars, separated from costs able to be reimbursed by other forms of insurance. Costs were reported in financial years to allow for conversion to constant prices for the periods 2007-08 to 2010-11 [49].     ‘Total   cost’   was   the   sum of all individual costs associated with a claim. Details of service provision associated with costs were not supplied within the dataset. Appendix E-1 contains a table showing the calculations used for conversion to constant prices.

2.7.5 Mechanism of Injury for stress claims

Mechanism of Injury refers to the Type of Occurrence Classification Scheme (ToOCS) 3rd _{Edition [50] coding  of  the  claimant’s  written  description  of  how  the}   injury or disease occurred. It notionally describes the cause of the injury or illness. The Mechanism of Injury coding variables were categorized as i) work pressure (deadlines, responsibilities, restructuring, interpersonal conflict, performance based management), ii) workplace harassment and/ or workplace bullying (repetitive assault, harassment, abuse, threats), and iii) other (exposure to a traumatic event, exposure to workplace or occupational violence, suicide or attempted suicide, other harassment, other mental stress factors).

Occupations coding

Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations sub- categories were manually reviewed to create new themed categories that enabled comparisons with existing Tasmanian Government award categories that had been established for the research reported in Chapter 3. This led to their subsequent categorization as blue collar (e.g. manual work), white collar (e.g. administrative work), service (e.g. nurses, teachers, police, community service and emergency service workers), professional (e.g. professionally titled) and manager.

2.7.6 Conceptual review

The information reported in the commentary to Chapter 4 (Appendix D) was collated from:

i) a student placement within the Tasmanian Government that gave the context for  the  workers’  compensation  study  and  enabled  development  of   knowledge on this topic via discussions with work, health and safety professionals,

ii) a documentation review of Australian WHS websites, legislation, regulations, SafeWork publications, compensation claim forms, and the ToOCs categories for mental diseases,

iii) critical assessment of the content of WorkCover database and iv) literature review of work factors contributing to job stress.

This information was collected on an ongoing basis from March 2012 to November 2014 as analysis for Chapter 4 proceeded and results emerged.