UNIONS CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTON ON WORKCOVER

23 June 2011

South Australian unions says the State Government must live up to ALP policy to make WorkCover fairer for people injured at work.

SA Unions Secretary, Janet Giles says the Review of the Impact of the Worker's Rehabilitation and Compensation (Scheme Review) Amendment Act 2008 was tabled in Parliament today and confirms the union movements' views that people injured at work are suffering harshly under WorkCover.

"When the Government made these changes to WorkCover in 2008, they said they would make the scheme more efficient and to get people back to work sooner, barely anything has changed."

"The Review found that WorkCover's insurer has no "sense of urgency" about getting people back to work earlier, has a high turnover of case managers and is slow to respond to injured workers' requests to help with retraining so they can get back to work."

Ms Giles said it was very concerning that one of the hardest hit groups by the changes have been low paid female workers.

"We know that women in this group are often struggling, have problems with English, and have work that is casual and unreliable."

"The Review found that people who make claims and appear before Medical Panels are being subjected to "severe emotional and psychological distress" because of the secretive nature of the process."

It finds that a system has become "more difficult to comprehend" for injured workers, and aspects of the Act are continually being challenged by lawyers because they are not clear.

"The State Government must immediately amend the Act to make WorkCover fairer for injured South Australians."

SA Unions made a detailed submission to the review, arguing that the scheme is poorly run, with a 40% turnover in case managers and huge delays to decisions from medical panels about the health of injured people.

"This simply costs the scheme money and causes stress and anxiety to people who are battling injuries", Ms Giles says.