WorkCover staff sent home after internet failure causes disruption as cloud transition continues

A Brisbane-based WorkCover Queensland office was hit by an internet failure this week forcing staff home amid broader leadership instability and a far-reaching digital overhaul.

From left: Angela Jones left WorkCover Queensland in January; Clayton Brazil left in December and the organisation is currently headed by Michael Pennisi.

A major Queensland government agency responsible for managing workers’ compensation claims was forced to send employees home this week after a serious technology failure disrupted operations at its Brisbane headquarters.

A former state government employee, who requested anonymity, said workers arriving at the 280 Adelaide Street office on Tuesday and Wednesday were unable to log into internal systems and were sent home.

WorkCover Queensland offices suffered an internet outage with staff sent home this week. Picture: The Courier-Mail

“They turned up to work and couldn’t log in. The systems just didn’t work in the building,” the source said. “It’s a bit of a mess at the moment. The position of CIO was vacated earlier this year.”

The incident coincided with WorkCover Queensland’s ongoing transition to cloud-based systems, but the organisation has not confirmed a direct link between the two.

“It’s likely they rushed the migration (to the new system) without proper testing in a live environment,” the former employee said.

“It works from staff homes, which could be a range of issues such as a misconfigured security setting because people working remotely were unaffected.”

While the technical glitch was short-lived, it came amid a period of broader disruption and leadership churn within WorkCover Queensland.

The insurer has seen a string of executive departures over the past year, including the exit of its chief information officer and chief information security officer within weeks of each other.

Angela Jones departed from her position as WorkCover CIO in January and is now listed on LinkedIn as a business transformation consultant at Super Retail Group.

Computers at the Brisbane WorkCover office where there was an IT glitch this week. Picture: WorkCover Queensland

Leading technology news publication iTnews reported that Clayton Brazil, who served as WorkCover Queensland’s chief information security officer and head of cyber and information security left in December.

The organisation is now under the leadership of CEO Michael Pennisi, who took over in June and is overseeing what the agency describes as a “multi-year digital transformation”.

In response to questions, a WorkCover Queensland spokesperson confirmed that the issues were due to degraded internet connectivity at the office and were “not related to our core claims systems or any of our operational systems”.

“People using work-from-home arrangements were not impacted by the internet connectivity issue,” the spokesperson said.

“For our customers and stakeholders, there have been no impacts to payments or other critical services.”

WorkCover Queensland is undergoing a massive IT overhaul to move processes to the cloud. Picture: WorkCover Queensland

By Wednesday afternoon, the agency said full internet connectivity had been restored at its Brisbane premises, allowing staff to resume normal in-office duties.

WorkCover’s most recent annual report outlines the scope of its technology overhaul.

“We have embarked on a multi-year digital transformation journey, prioritising our transition to the cloud... to deliver secure, flexible and more responsive experiences.”

The report also highlights a strong focus on cybersecurity and improvements to digital claims management, emphasising that enhancing claim lodgement and decision-making processes is a “core priority”.

Despite this week’s glitch, WorkCover maintains that its broader cloud migration is on schedule.

“Our cloud migration project is well advanced and is due for completion this financial year as planned,” the spokesperson said.

However, internal observers suggested that the recent operational hiccups reflected deeper organisational issues.

“Turnover at the executive level has been too high,” the former employee said. “There’s no continuity at the top, and that creates cracks in big projects like this.”

While services are now back online, attention has turned to WorkCover’s testing protocols, contingency planning, and vendor management practices.

It’s unclear whether an independent review will be undertaken to assess the handling of the incident.

Originally published as WorkCover staff sent home after internet failure causes disruption as cloud transition continues