News

On Thursday 22 August 2019, the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 was introduced to Queensland Parliament.

The Bill proposes enhancements to the claims management process and supports for injured workers in line with recommendations made by Professor David Peetz after his 2018 review of the scheme. The proposed amendments include:

• ensuring support services are available to workers suffering from psychological injuries before their workers’ compensation claim is decided
• extending access to an insurer’s accredited rehabilitation and return to work program to workers at the end of their claim if they have not returned to work because of their injury
• exempting employers’ expressions of regret and apologies from being considered in a common law claim, to encourage employers to apologise and reduce distress for injured workers
• requiring self-insured employers to report injuries and any payments to their insurer, to align with the current requirements imposed on all other employers
• clarifying how employers can ensure their rehabilitation and return to work coordinator is appropriately qualified
• allowing insurers further discretion to accept claims lodged outside the legislated timeframe to ensure workers with chronic or psychiatric injuries who attempt to manage their injury at work are not disadvantaged
• extending workers’ compensation coverage to unpaid interns to ensure these vulnerable individuals have access to relevant entitlements in the event of an injury
• reverting to the previous definition of psychological injury so that a worker’s employment needs only to be ‘a’ significant contributing factor to the injury, rather than ‘the major’ significant factor
• clarifying that WorkCover Queensland can fund and provide programs and incentives encouraging employers to improve health and safety performance after consulting with the relevant health and safety regulators.

More information

To view the Bill, visit https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/whole/html/bill.first/bill-2019-003