Workers compensation claims Security officers

Transcription

1 Workers compensation claims officers

2 Introduction For the purpose of this report, ANZSCO (2006) occupation code 4422 was used to define security officers. Accepted workers compensation claims data for was used to correspond with labour force data obtained from 2011 Census of Population and Housing. The Australian Bureau of Statistics employment categories, employees and own account workers were used to represent the number of workers covered by the Queensland scheme. Accepted workers compensation claims The 2011 Census of Population and Housing showed that security officers contributed to 0.45 per cent of workers covered. officers contributed 0.6 per cent to all accepted claims made by all occupations in. In, the rate of injury was 58.4 per 1000 security officers. The injury rate for security officers was higher than the injury rate for all workers which was 43.6 per 1000 workers. The rate of serious claims for security officers was almost double the claim rate for serious claims for all workers. Similarly, the rate of conversion of accepted claims to serious claims 1 was higher for security officers than all occupations. Almost one half of accepted claims made by security officers became serious claims. This contrasts to all occupations, whereby slightly under one third of accepted claims by all occupations became serious claims. Table 1: Number of claims, conversion to serious claims and claim rates security officers and all workers Officers All workers* Accepted claims Serious claims Accepted claim rate 58.4 per 1000 security officers 43.6 per 1000 workers Serious injury claim rate 28.4 per 1000 security officers 14.6 per 1000 workers Conversion to serious claims 48.6 per cent 33.4 per cent *Employees and own account workers in Queensland The following tables provide details on the drivers of injuries suffered by security officers. Table 2: Top five injury groups for accepted claims made by security officers Injury group Number of claims Proportion Proportion All workers (%) Trauma to muscles and tendons Wounds, lacerations, amputations and internal organ damage Trauma to joints and ligaments Fractures Residual soft tissue disorders due to trauma or unknown mechanisms Sub total top five injury groups All other injury groups Serious, on duty claims involve five or more days off work; or a permanent impairment PN officer Page 2 of 5

3 The most common injury type suffered by security officers involved trauma to muscles and tendons, which contributed to close to one quarter (23.9 per cent) of accepted claims. officers were underrepresented in comparison to all workers in the top two most common injury types, trauma to muscles and tendons and wounds, lacerations, amputations and internal organ damage. Conversely, security officers were overrepresented in trauma to joints and ligaments, fractures and residual soft tissue disorders due to trauma or unknown mechanisms relative to all workers. Table 3: Top five mechanism groups for accepted claims made by security officers All Number of claims workers (%) Mechanism Group Being hit by moving objects Body stressing Falls, trips and slips of a person Vehicle incidents and other Mental stress Sub total - top five mechanisms All other mechanisms The most common mechanism group of injury for security officers included being hit by moving objects which contributed to over one quarter (28.4 per cent) of accepted claims. Being hit by moving objects was heavily overrepresented in relation to all workers, by 12.3 percentage points. To a lesser extent, falls, trips and slips of a person, vehicle incidents and other and mental stress were overrepresented by security officers relative to all workers. Conversely, body stressing was underrepresented by 8.6 percentage points in relation to all workers. Table 4: Top five agency groups for accepted claims made by security officers Agency group Number of claims All workers (%) Human agencies Outdoor environment Road transport Other and unspecified agencies Indoor environment Sub total - top five agencies All other agencies Human agencies were the most common agency groups for accepted claims made by security officers. Human agencies were involved in two and a half times the number of claims involving outdoor environment, contributing 38.4 per cent and 15.2 per cent, respectively. In comparison to all workers, security officers were overrepresented in the top three ranked agencies of injury. Notably human agencies were overrepresented by security officers by 32.9 percentage points relative to all workers. PN officer Page 3 of 5

4 Table 5: Top 10 bodily locations involved in accepted claims made by security officers Bodily location Number of claims All workers (%) Knee Lower back Shoulder Ankle Psychological system in general Face Neck bones, muscles and tendons Wrist Hand Fingers Sub total - top 10 bodily locations All other bodily locations The most common bodily location involved in injuries suffered by security officers included the knee (10.6 per cent of claims made by security officers), closely followed by lower back (10.2 per cent). The top three most common bodily locations of injury (knee, lower back and shoulder) were separated by only six claims. Injuries involving joints including knee, shoulder and ankle as well as psychological system, face, and neck were overrepresented by security officers in comparison to all workers. Table 6: Top five age groups for injuries suffered by security officers Number of claims All Age group (years) workers (%) Sub total - top five age groups All other age groups officers aged between 25 and 34 years were most commonly injured in , contributing to over one quarter of accepted claims made by security officers (26.6 per cent). Relative to all workers, security officers were overrepresented in the top four age groups. The age groups of 35 to 44 years and 45 to 54 years were second and third most common and were separated by 3 accepted claims. The broad composition of the top five age groups of injury for security officers was similar to all occupations. PN officer Page 4 of 5

5 Table 7: Severity of accepted claims made by security officers Severity Number of claims All workers (%) Weekly compensation paid Other Permanent impairment Common law paid Grand total * *0.1 per cent attributed to claims for fatalities. Claims resulting in weekly compensation paid were most common for security officers, which contributed to over two thirds of claims. Relative to all occupations, weekly compensation paid was overrepresented by 14.7 percentage points. This overrepresentation was offset by the severity category other (most of which are medical expense claims only), where security officers were underrepresented by 15.3 percentage points. No accepted fatal claims were made for security officers in Workplace Health and Safety Queensland The State of Queensland (Department of Justice and Attorney-General) 2013 Copyright protects this document. The State of Queensland has no objection to this material being reproduced, but asserts its right to be recognised as author of the original material and the right to have the material unaltered. The material presented in this publication is distributed by the Queensland Government as an information source only. The State of Queensland makes no statements, representations, or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this publication, and the reader should not rely on it. The Queensland Government disclaims all responsibility and all liability (including, without limitation, liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs you might incur as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way, and for any reason. PN officer Page 5 of 5