Develop and article on Return to Work Programme.

A Challenge for employees and employers

Despite workplace safety and health improvements in recent years, occupational injuries and illnesses continue to be a prominent public health concern. In 2014 there were approximately three million non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in the U.S., with almost one-third of them involving days away from work (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). The costs associated with workplace injuries can be substantial for both injured workers and employers. Workers suffer economic and noneconomic hardships that often persist for years. Employers must pay medical and indemnity benefits, lose worker productivity, and often bear the costs of replacing the lost workers. A key metric that is closely linked with the costs of occupational injuries for both workers and employers is the duration of time to return to work (RTW) after injury. Early RTW after injury is associated with significant declines in long term earnings losses for disabled workers, even after controlling for injury severity, presumably by minimizing the extent of career disruption. Extended injury duration also poses direct and indirect costs on employers; the direct cost of higher disability indemnity benefit payments, and indirectly through the value of lost productivity. These costs associated with the duration of work absences make the promotion of early RTW for workers` compensation claimants an important priority for policymakers. C. F. McLaren, R. T. Reville, S. A. Seabury (2017). How effective are employer return to work programs? International Review of Law and Economics 52 (2017) 58-73. Published by Elsevier Inc