Browsing: Workers' compensation legislation, regulations, standards and codes | Page 6

In an Australian first, the practice of workers' compensation "claim farming" will be banned, under an Amendment Bill that also curtails the impact of a Queensland judgment on benefits for workers with terminal conditions.

• WHS Regulations made for gig economy platforms in NSW;
  
• Anonymous reports by workers trigger hundreds of WHS interventions; and
  
• COVID capacity-certificate rule applied indefinitely in NSW.

• New safety consultation and labour-hire laws commence in Vic;
  
• Consolidated electricity safety laws introduced in Tas; and
  
• Workers' comp changes proposed by Tas.

Police officers are among those who have applauded a parliamentary inquiry's call for the NSW Upper House to reject a Bill scrapping presumptive compensation for workers with COVID-19. The inquiry slammed the State Government's cost-blowout claims and its failure to properly consider alternatives to dumping the benefit.

• Strict COVID-19 notification rules scrapped in Vic; and
  
• Presumptive COVID protections flagged for SA.

• Close contact exemptions extended to multiple industries;
  
• PTSD presumption introduced in WA; and
  
• Sun safety advice issued by SWA.

Employers will be required to report safety "near misses" and incidents involving infectious diseases to a workplace safety regulator, under new Victorian laws that also increase the benefits available to workers with silicosis and similar conditions.

A Bill that scraps presumptive compensation for workers with COVID-19, and passed the NSW Lower House yesterday, will make it "next to impossible" for coronavirus victims to obtain benefits, the Greens have warned. But industry groups claim there are "multiple tools" to help claimants establish a work-COVID link.

• Presumptive COVID provision to be axed from work injury Act; and
  
• Silica Regulations commence, licences mandatory in 12 months.

Businesses that breach workplace safety, workers' compensation, employment or environmental laws in any jurisdiction or overseas can now be blocked from supplying goods, services or works to Western Australian agencies, under Australia's "first debarment regime".