Employers brace for WorkCover premium rise as report casts doubt on scheme

Employer groups in Victoria are expecting WorkCover premiums to rise this year after an alarming report that casts doubt on the viability of the state’s ailing workers’ compensation scheme.

Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson started up a service for injured workers in Parramatta so they don't just depend on workers compensation.

Employer groups in Victoria are expecting WorkCover premiums to rise this year, after the Andrews government chose New Year’s Eve to make public an alarming report that casts doubt on the viability of the state’s ailing workers’ compensation scheme.

Australian Industry Group Victorian director Tim Piper said any premium rise would make businesses in the state less competitive, while Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief Paul Guerra called for premium discounts for businesses with strong track records of preventing injuries and assisting injured workers to re-enter the workforce.

The comments came as a work injury recovery expert Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson, who gave evidence to a recent Andrews government-commissioned review of WorkSafe, said the system focused on legal considerations at the expense of results that would benefit both injured workers and employers.

Responding to the December 2020 consultants’ report – kept secret by the Andrews government for two years and only released following a Freedom of Information request – Mr Piper said there was “of course” potential for an increase in WorkCover premiums this year “and of course we’re concerned about it”.

“There are many reasons for it, but not least of which is the latitude that is being given to those seeking compensation, particularly in mental health issues,” he said. “You can’t continue to increase the largesse offered to employees without knowing it’s going to impact on the system.

“The other thing is that any increase in premiums makes Victorian businesses less competitive with businesses elsewhere.”

Mr Guerra said the scheme was becoming unsustainable, “which means a premium increase is unfortunately highly likely”.

“We want to be part of the solution, and in our view that’s a combination of improved system performance and education to increase the focus on injury prevention, both for physical injury and mental health injury,” he said.

Sydney-based Ms McKenzie-Ferguson founded not-for-profit Craig’s Table to help injured workers return to work, after she become an incomplete paraplegic as a result of a work injury.

She served as an industry adviser to now County Court Judge Peter Rozen KC’s review of WorkSafe, but says “not one person in the Victorian workers’ compensation system” heeded her advice.

Peter Rozen KC had carried out a review of WorkSafe.

“At no point as they (WorkSafe) go through (an injured workers’) claim, no one actually says to them, ‘we’re getting you ready to go back to work’. It’s all about legal and medical. It’s not about outcomes,” Ms McKenzie-Ferguson said.

She said organisations like hers saw workers’ compensation “as a detour, not a destination”, and worked to find alternative work for people who were unable to return to their old job – an approach she says is desperately needed in workers’ compensation systems.

“We’ve had paediatric nurses go back to uni to do their PhD to become a teacher because they can’t go back to nursing, transport drivers become logistics managers. It really is just about shifting the way they think and understand themselves, and that shift is what we need to see in the system too. Instead, they’re too often telling us what we can’t do.

“My medical team tell me that if I was to ask for a medical certificate and medical capacity, they would give me 10 to 14 hours a fortnight capacity. I work 60 to 80 hours a week.

“It really is about knowing what I can do rather than listening to what others tell me I can do.”

A WorkSafe spokesman said: “Helping injured workers to recover is at the heart of what WorkSafe does and more than 22,000 people were supported to return to work last financial year.”

A spokesman for the Andrews government said: “Our priority is helping people get back to work after an injury – and ensuring every Victorian has the opportunity to return to the workforce after an injury will be front and centre in these consultations.”