Having a workers' compensation scheme is absolutely essential to our society. For a person that goes to work, and gets injured, there must be a framework that allows them to have their injuries and income looked after.
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Our society relies on having systems in place to make workplaces safe so that our people can be healthy, active contributors to our nation.
In really simple terms, our businesses, our employers, pay a fee (premium) into the workers' compensation system. It is generally around $1.20 for every $100 that they pay out in wages. This money is pooled together into the one bucket and an insurance is taken out to cover the work force.
When a person gets injured at work, they make a claim against this insurance. In NSW there are about 70,000 claims made each year. That's 70,000 people that get injured at work. The great majority of these injuries, 90 percent, are minor and these people are back at work within days, or perhaps a week or two. The other 10 percent are a bit more complicated but even so, almost all of this 10 percent are back at work within six months. And then there are the very small number of serious and complicated injuries that take longer.
Over the past two weeks we have been made aware that the NSW Treasurer, who is responsible for the workers' compensation insurance scheme, has willingly and knowingly turned a blind eye to a range of problems inside of the scheme.
Fundamentally, the NSW Treasurer is now accused of failing to properly manage the workers compensation scheme books. Remember, this is money that belongs to the businesses that pay into the scheme. Also, this is money that should go toward looking after injured workers, not treating them like disposable slaves to industry.
So while the Treasurer has allowed senior executive wages that average $660,000, he has also redesigned the scheme to kick people off after five years if their injury to whole body is determined to be 20 percent or less - regardless of whether they have returned to stable health and regardless of whether they are able to work.
Our workers' compensation scheme is essential. But a good scheme would have injured workers properly taken care of and employers paying as little as possible into the scheme. A good scheme wouldn't be splashing the funds around like a drunken sailor, risking its financial death.
