Browsing: Workers' comp legislation, regulations, standards and codes (QLD) | Page 1

Injured workers, and their employers, will be better protected from costly secondary psychological injuries by new provisions requiring insurers to actively provide early intervention services. The provisions are included in a Queensland Bill, which also creates Australia's longest list of cancers presumed, for workers' comp purposes, to be caused by firefighting duties.

Legislation banning workers' compensation "claim farming" has passed Parliament, while a Bill increasing workplace protections for s-xual harassment victims and independent vehicle drivers has been introduced, and a mental health levy has been announced for large employers, across a busy few days in Queensland.

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.

An employer's efforts to expedite bullying allegations against a worker, by relying on a draft investigation report, have defeated it claims that it isn't liable for the worker's psychological injury.

• Duty holders face fatality penalties of up to $4.2m and jail; and
  
• Work-related PTSD protections pass in Qld.

Queensland has become the third Australian jurisdiction to introduce presumptive injury compensation for first responders, and other workers exposed to "graphic details of traumatic incidents", who develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

A major workers' comp Bill amending the test for psychological injuries has passed Queensland Parliament, while Victoria has reported a near record low workplace injury rate, and workers' comp changes have commenced in NSW.

Psychologically injured workers will no longer need to prove their employment was the "major" cause of their injury, while employers will be able to apologise to injured workers without fear of admitting liability, under a 79-page Bill introduced in Queensland.

Uber and other gig economy companies will be forced to pay workers' comp premiums under a Queensland plan, while the State Government has revealed the average premium rate for 2019-20.

Queensland should amend its workers' compensation laws to protect workers engaged by gig-economy companies like Uber and Airtasker, and push for the changes to be adopted nationally, a major review of the State scheme has found.