WorkCover NSW and WorkSafe Victoria have clarified the alarming cost of workers' compensation claims for stress, industrial deafness and musculoskeletal disorders, and outlined what they plan to do to help employers reduce them.
WorkCover NSW should make it harder for injured workers to claim damages for permanent impairment, or risk the development of an unsustainable "lump sum culture", a PricewaterhouseCoopers report has recommended.
Victorian employer handed hefty safety fine for scaffolding breach; South Australian employer fined for confined-space confusion; and Comcare reports falling funds and increasing premiums.
Only one jurisdiction - South Australia - is on track to reach the target set by the 2002-2012 National OHS Strategy for reducing workplace injury rates, according to Safe Work Australia's latest comparative report.
"Fake" WorkSafe psychologist jailed for five years; Builders back Victoria's "odd" harmonisation demands; WA premiums to increase for the second time in three months; and Queensland mining sector announces falling injury rate, issues three safety alerts.
Injured workers who have a return-to-work plan with staged goals developed for them - and are given help to follow it - are significantly more likely to return to and stay in their jobs, a new report has found.
WorkSafe Victoria has committed to modernising its IT systems and holding its insurance agents to account, after the State Ombudsman found the agents had withheld payments from injured workers, stymied the return-to-work process and rorted the scheme.
An external review of WorkCover SA's rehabilitation and compensation scheme has found its "relatively generous" entitlements for injured workers present "an obstacle" to rehabilitation.
