TURNING INJURY INTO OPPORTUNITY

24 March 2010

An innovative pilot project to value the skills of injured workers and assist them into productive and meaningful jobs is being launched today by SA Unions

From an initial test group of 50, SA Unions is endeavouring to develop a system as a model for injured workers in any industries.

SA Unions has won funding from WorkCover for an 18 month project which aims to address a gaping hole in the current approach to workers compensation and employment.

"Currently when someone is injured in the workplace that's it, they're labelled as nothing more than an injured worker.  We want to change that by removing the stigma of injury through skills retraining so that they can continue to make a genuine contribution to the workforce", SA Unions Secretary, Janet Giles says.

"The sad fact is that the workers compensation system doesn't understand the training system, and the training system doesn't understand the workers compensation system.  Our retraining project aims to bridge that gap, for the benefit of workers, employers and the state economy", Ms Giles says.

"We want to embed retraining as part of the solution not just for injured workers, but as part of the solution for the state's skills shortage."

"Our 50 candidates in the pilot project are in the manufacturing and community services sectors."

"SA Unions believes this project will actively and positively contribute to solving what's currently seen as the "problem" of injured workers by valuing them, acknowledging their experience, building on their skills through retraining and improving the Return to Work rate of the workers compensation system."

"It may be that these newly re-skilled workers can return to a different job with the same employer, or perhaps secure work with a new employer.  Either way, they're not ending up on the scrap heap, employers have the benefit of a properly trained, skilled and experienced worker and the efficiency of the workers compensation system is boosted."

"Ultimately, we want to develop a system from which all sectors can gain", Ms Giles says.

The initiative was launched by WorkCover Ombudsman, Wayne Lines on Wednesday 24th March.