Workers compensation reform to address psychological security

Mookhey will establish plans to make greater use of health and safety laws in the workplace to prevent psychological injuries, instead of depending solely on the State Workers Compensation System as the main response.

In a ministerial statement, the treasurer will also inform Parliament that:

• If claims continue to grow at recent rates, state insurer Icare expects an additional 80,000 people to make claims of psychological injuries in the next five years,
• For every $ 1 necessary to take care of injured workers, the main scheme of compensation of state workers currently has only 85 cents in assets, and
• Without a reform, premiums for companies that do not face claims against them will increase by 36 percent during the three years to 2027-28.

Mookhey will describe a consultation program with NSW Business and Unions NSW, as well as other interested parties, to create the reform. The model you will describe see NSW:

1. Give the NSW Industrial Relations Commission a jurisdiction of harassment and harassment of harassment before demanding that these claims are heard there before a compensation claim can be obtained. This will allow the commission to address psychological risks, promoting a culture of prevention.
2. Define psychological injuries, as well as ‘reasonable management action’, to provide workers with certainty companies, instead of letting the definitions remain the subject of litigation.
3. Align the thresholds of deterioration of the complete person with the standards established in southern Australia and Queensland.
4. Adopt some of the recently promulgated anti-fraud measures for Commonwealth to protect the national disability insurance scheme.
5. Respond more to the recommendations than the retired judge from the Robert McDougall Supreme Court made in his independent review of Safe Work NSW.

The treasurer has been working closely with the Minister of Industrial Relations, Sophie Cotsis and Minister of Emergency Services, Jihad Dib in the Reform.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:

“Our workers compensation system was designed at a time when most people did physical work, in farms and construction sites, mines or factories.

“A system that addresses all psychological risks in the workplace in the same way as physical hazards, must change.

“Allowing the system to remain in the autopilot will only catch more employees, employers and the NSW state to a destination we can avoid.

“We must build an adequate system for the purpose, one that reflects modern workplaces and modern forms of work.”