Why shearing rates are going up, and it’s not all going to workers

Injuries during shearing are forcing up the costs for contactors and producers alike.

Workcover premiums are adding up to $1 to the cost of shearing a sheep in Australia.

And the toll on industry could rise as injury claims remain high despite investments from farmers into new shearing technology and equipment.

In the past financial year in Victoria, there were 36 injury claims accepted by Worksafe, double the number of three years ago.

In NSW, the government body which regulates workcover premiums, Icare, this year lifted the rate for shearing again, pushing it over 10 per cent.

It comes as the shearing industry in NSW monitors a new test case injury claim made by a shearer for hearing loss from continued exposure to noise.

Former shearing contractors Wayne and Wendy Godde, who operated Shear Away at Culcairn, NSW, for more than two decades, described the workcover system for shearing as a “hell of a mess’’.

“The system absolutely stinks and it becomes horrific for contractors when you get these premium adjustments for injury claims that you end up paying off for years,’’ Mrs Godde said.

The Goddes said they battled with workcover authorities numerous times, including a case where a shearer stayed behind at a shed that had ceased working due to wet sheep. He went fishing and while pulling on a line the sinker flung back and hit him in the eye.

“That cost us $174,000 – we ended up agreeing to pay it off over five years - and he never lost sight in the eye or anything, and that shed had been declared wet and everyone else had gone home,’’ Mrs Godde said.

“No one listens to you and you end up with all these different case managers and it becomes a hell of a mess.’’

Shearing Contractors Association of Australia secretary Jason Letchford said the workcover system was complicated and often unfair, and the cost of injury claims fed back to producers.

“It is a massive cost to the sheep industry, and the 10.44 per cent (premium in NSW) is the minimum charge,’’ Mr Letchford said.

“A contractor with a history of compensation claims – and shearing has a 70 per cent chance of a claim each year – has to pay off their claims history over several years and the probability is they will have another claim during the time they are ‘repaying’ their previous claim so it is never ending.

“Most shearing contractors will add another 3 per cent to 5 per cent to the 10.44 per cent, hence the cost being around $1 to shear a sheep in NSW at the moment.’’