OVERWORK and stress costs Australia more than $30 billion a year, half the total workplace injury bill.

Physical and psychological stress has outstripped other forms of injury and illness and the long-term cost in lost productivity and compensation is worn by workers and the community.

A comprehensive study of workplace fatalities, injuries and illness put the cost at $60.6 billion a year.

The report found that while the number of workplace fatalities fell in 2009-10 during the global financial crisis to a record low of 216, signs were increasing again.

This week, Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten will announce a campaign to encourage workers to speak up about safety, and call for annual reporting to Parliament.

The Safe Work Australia study revealed that when "body stressing" and "mental stress" are combined, they make up half of the cost of job-related injury and illness.

The cost of workplace illness among managers and administrators was $9.6 billion a year, injuries to labourers $7.9 billion and to tradespeople, $10.6 billion.

The report showed the cost of workplace death and injury was now worth about 5 per cent of Australia's total economic output.

The report coincides with labour force statistics that showed Australians were working millions of hours more since the GFC.

While the data did not draw a direct link between longer hours and illness and injury, the Safe Work report said: "Over one-third of the total number of cases and total economic cost are associated with body stressing or manual-handling cases.

"Mechanisms more associated with disease, such as sound and pressure, biological factors and mental stress, have a higher unit cost than those associated with injuries (such as falls and trips).

"While mental stress cases comprise 4 per cent of the ... cases, they contribute 9 per cent of the total cost."

Research by talent management firm SHL found just 29 per cent of workers with a good manager take days off when they are not sick, compared with 35 per cent who rate their manager's performance as below par.

One-third of employees say having too much responsibility or "burnout" is a reason for them to take sick leave when they are not ill. It topped the list of reasons to take a sick day.