Emergency workers fight for workers compensation NSW

By Workcovervictims on June 27, 2012 in Media, Unions, WorkCover NSW

Illawarra emergency service workers are keeping up their assault on the State Government’s WorkCover reforms despite being exempt from what they describe as “crippling changes”, reports the Illawara Mercury today.

Emergency workers fight for workers compensation NSW

Yesterday, the South Coast Labour Council, with the backing of police and firefighters’ unions, pledged to take “whatever action necessary” until “every single worker in NSW gets what they deserve”.

“We are 100 per cent committed to ensuring that every worker is exempted from these laws, including the nurses, construction workers, transport workers and others,” Mr Rorris said.

He would not rule out further strike action across the public sector as part of the escalating campaign.

Some 800 firefighters from the Illawarra, Newcastle, Sydney and the Central Coast took their first general strike in 56 years last week to ensure they joined police, paramedics and coalminers in being exempt from changes to workers’ compensation.

The changes include capping benefits and medical expenses and axing claims involving journeys to and from work.

The firefighters were proof that “strong direct action by working people was paying dividends”, Mr Rorris said.

“We are going to use the same principle across the whole workplace.

“They are all working people, they all have families, they all deserve to be treated with respect, particularly when they are injured at work.”

NSW Police Association branch official Bob Minns said yesterday police officers supported the labour council’s push to get “all workers the same basic coverage they deserve”.

“All workers should be exempt. Everyone should be covered to and from work – it’s just a basic principle of taking care of the workers,” he said.

Fire Brigade Employees Union state president Darin Sullivan described last week’s historic strike action as a “huge victory”.

“Nurses, teachers … and all workers in NSW deserve proper protective workers’ compensation rights and for this Government to continue to undermine, attack and water down that legislation is a disgrace,” Mr Sullivan said.

“Even though police, fire and ambulance officers are exempt, we are still here for all the other workers.”

[Source: http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/emergency-workers-take-up-compo-fight/2604273.aspx]

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We are the authors, co-authors, seriously injured workers and invisible supporters (incl. abled family members and friends) behind A Diary of a WorkCover Victim. We hope this site, our and many other injured workers’ stories will somehow help other injured workers navigating the murky waters of the workcover system, and, at the very least, teach you to be extremely diligent in finding out your legitimate rights, always questioning the “system” in order to keep some sort of control within the workcover system. The workers compensation is – in our opinion- extremely adversarial and they use tactics to wear you down, to make you emotionally bleed out, to break you, all in order to weaken your position and to maximise their insane profits.