Based on recent years, in 2016:
About 1 in 5 employees will be injured in the workplace, one quarter of them requiring one or more weeks off work. Around 200 people will be killed in the workplace.
About 1 in 5 Australian workers will suffer some form of mental illness. Australian businesses will lose over $6.5 billion by failing to provide early intervention/treatment for employees with mental health conditions. About 50% of employers will believe mental illness does not exist in their workplace.
About 1 in 3 employees will experience some form of racism, as will about 100% of indigenous employees.
Half of all employees will witness workplace bullying and 25% of them will have first hand experience of it. As a result, Australian businesses will lose between $6 and $13 billion due to decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, staff turnover and poor morale.
Around 11,000 cases of unfair dismissal will be investigated under the Fair Work act, as will over 25,000 cases of employees being underpaid by tens of millions of dollars.
1 in 10 visa holders will be underpaid and denied entitlements by employers. 20% of 457 visa holders will be underpaid and employed in a job they are not qualified to do.
28% of women and 7% of men will experience sexual harassment in the workplace, less than one third of them will report it.
Women will be paid on average 18% less than men in equivalent positions.
Wages growth will continue to decline for the third year in a row and be at the lowest rate since Australia was last in recession in the early 1990s.
Employer groups and the Federal government will continue to push for the abolition of penalty rates.
Meanwhile the Turnbull (née Abbott) government has called for new laws tightening union regulations and has vowed to make union reform an election issue this year.