We have yet to come across any injured worker that doesn’t want to return to work in some capacity, yet the underlying assumption of the O’Farrell Government (misinformed by WorkCover and their actuaries) is that most injured workers are looking for ‘easy money’. We agree with Tim Concannon “It is the systems in place or the injuries themselves that prevent them from returning to work, not some intent on their part to remain in the system and wait for the lump sum to materialise”
NSW Workers compensation ‘lump sum culture’ is pure myth
Australia: OHS Alert: Inquiry into the NSW workers’ compensation scheme
A personal injury lawyer with 23 years’ experience virtually lampooned claims that WorkCover’s $4.1 billion deficit is linked to an “explosion” in damages claims and a lump-sum culture.
Tim Concannon, a NSW Law Society injury compensation committee member and a Carroll and O’Dea partner, told the inquiry that the vast majority of injured workers “express an abhorrence” at the idea of obtaining a lump sum instead of returning to work.
He said actuarial assessments that found there was a lump-sum culture appeared to be based on decade-old projections that ignored 2001 amendments to workers’ compensation laws that “significantly” removed access to such payouts.
“One of the assumptions the actuaries make is that over the last 18 months there has been an alleged explosion in the number of work injury damages claims,” Concannon said.
“We find it impossible, based on our own experience of cases that have developed over the last 12 to 18 months, to believe that such an explosion has occurred.
“On my limited ability as a lawyer to understand how actuaries have come to their assessment, it seems to me it may well be that these are based on projections of what may have happened before the [legislation changed] in 2001.”
… But Concannon told the inquiry that in his experience some 99 per cent of injured workers were “very enthusiastic about returning to work”.
“It is the systems in place or the injuries themselves that prevent them from returning to work, not some intent on their part to remain in the system and wait for the lump sum to materialise,” he said.
The maximum lump sums available – $100,000 for permanent impairment and $50,000 for pain and suffering – were “paltry”, Concannon noted.
“They would not attract anyone to remain in this system for an extended period of time.”
http://www.mondaq.com/australia/x/187976/Employee+Benefits+Compensation/OHS+Alert+Inquiry+into+the+NSW+workers+compensation+scheme
Added by workcovervictim:
I just received an email from an injured worker:
“Please find a picture of $200 worth of cards I had to ask a local charity for in order for me to buy food and petrol.
I will provide the name of the charity and the support worker upon request
Hand outs and Centrelink”
I would actually add to that, that this is the life on workers compensation for many genuinely medium to severely injured workers, in many states… a life of poverty. Nobody in their right mind would want to be on workcover, or want to stay a second longer than needed on workers compensation. It is a nightmare.
http://wp.me/p1MA9G-2YW
You are so right John. I have been proven by Medical Panel opinion to have sustained a serious injury of 30% loss of my psychiatric capacity. I have been persistently blocked and refused in all my attempts to obtain retraining, and was “compensated” out of weekly payments by a payment of barely two years wages. The failure to retrain me has now forced me into homelessness and extreme poverty. Prior to the compensation, which i only accepted on the provision that I would be retrained, I was on Workcover for more than six years during which I was relentlessly bullied by the insurer CGU, and at times by my employers who terminated my employment in 2007. My injuries are the result of “workplace mobbing” a severe form of bullying in which all my colleagues and some members of the employing group participated. The bullies all got longer hours of employment as their reward, and I got my whole life and mental health gutted. I never got retrained despite it being a condition of the compensation contract I finally signed under extreme pressure from my lawyer.
Hi Pauline
The type of treatment you’ve been exposed to is a disgrace. Further your case proves an horrific reality – widespread bullying is routinely ignored (brushed under the carpet) in the workplace and furthermore anyone suffering an injury (bullied or not in the workplace prior to injury) are then routinely bullied in the workers compensation system by employers and insurers. Unfortauntely for you – you’ve been exposed to a double dose of bullying. I have argued and will continue to argue that bullying both in the workplace and workers compensation system is ruining lives. Any laws that are passed to address workplace bullying, by extension, need to also protect injured workers post injury – in the workers compensation system.
I can empathise where you are and where you’ve come from – and it is wrong. Here’s a little about my own struggle.
http://workers.labor.net.au/features/200410/b_tradeunion_summit.html
http://workers.labor.net.au/251/news84_bullies.html
Recent Workers Compensation Inquiry
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/PARLMENT/Committee.nsf/0/283a94ed0499b3d6ca257a0f001c7fc7/$FILE/0020a_John%20McPhilbin.pdf
In 2003, I was forced onto workers compensation as a result of a workplace injury. My claim was initially declined and I was forced to fight for basic entitlements through the Workers Compensation Commission. I was successful in winning my case, however,
that was only the beginning of his nightmare. Despite suffering from major depression
as a result of my ordeal, I received little help from the insurance company. It took the
insurance company, even after years of lobbying NSW politicians for help, 6 years to
provide me with the support I desperately needed. I was left with very little support
from the system for 6 years. This meant I was left to languish for far too long and I
almost lost everything as a result, I even contemplated suicide on my darkest days. The
system, in my opinion, is not designed to meet the real needs of injured workers and
their families, in fact it only adds insult to injury. I am currently completing a degree in applied social science, majoring in management, and intend to pursue a career in helping to change the current system to better aid injured workers and their families get the care and justice they need and deserve.