Workers rally outside NSW parliament in fight to quash workers’ compensation reform

Unions NSW will join a number of unions including the NSW Teachers Federation and NSW Nurses and Midwives Association in a rally outside parliament today as part of a statewide campaign, to stop the proposed Exposure Workers Compensation Bill.

Released last week, the draft bill aims to dramatically alter the compensation claim system.

Among the changes are plans to lift the permanent impairment threshold for damages for psychological injury to 31 per cent, which unions, including the Teachers Federation and Unions NSW, claim would leave up to 95 per cent of workers unable to make a claim.

The changes, which also face opposition from industry groups and legal experts, also propose requiring workers claiming psychological injury because of racial or sexual harassment, or bullying, to obtain a court determination before receiving compensation.

Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey said there was a “great frustration” among workers planning to rally on Monday that a “Labor government would even contemplate doing this”, adding that frustration was quickly turning to anger.

“When they get into the detail [of the proposal], there is a growing anger around why [the NSW government] are doing this,” he said.

Mr Morey said while workers “are acknowledging some of the good things” the Minns government has done, “these sorts of fights detract from them being seen as a positive Labor government to a government that’s fighting with all its workforce”.

“I think [the government's] getting a name for themselves of always fighting with their workforce,” he said.

“They should be in a position where they’re supporting their workforce.”

Mr Morey urged the state government to take the workers’ compensation proposal “off the table” and “have a tripartite approach with government, business and unions to actually fix the system.

“I know business finds the system problematic and doesn’t help them returning people to work. We need to actually have a system that does that and that means restructuring the whole system and that’s a big job so we should take the time to get it right”.

If the proposal was passed by parliament in its current form, Mr Morey said workers who would have traditionally received mental health support will no longer be able to get it “and will be forced onto the care of their families or the federal welfare system”.

“They won’t be able to return to work because there will be no support mechanisms in place,” he said.

The first public hearing into the proposed changes was held last week.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Moohkey used his address to the parliamentary inquiry to draw a clear line in the sand over payments to the Treasury Managed Fund, the government’s self-insurer, telling the committee he would not authorise further cash injections.

Mr Moohkey told the committee during his address that the upcoming state budget would report a $2.6bn writedown arising from the TMF, and that since 2018 the state government had borrowed a whopping $6.1bn so that the TMF’s assets equalled its liabilities.

“As the TMF continues to deteriorate, the pressure for cash injections grows,” he said.

“I will not be authorising any further injections. Not until parliament decides its collective response to a scheme that most acknowledge is failing. Not when that money is coming at the expense of schools, hospitals or kids in need of out-of-home care.

“That choice is clear for me.”

Questioned during the hearing over whether he believed the reforms would solve both a financial problem and “workers getting injured”, Mr Moohkey said he did and that the Labor state government “accepts the fact that these are hard changes”.

“I’m here to say to the parliament – doing nothing is not an option.” Mr Moohkey said.

“Doing nothing is to lock in a system we know is failing. Doing nothing is to condemn even more workers to a system that’s not succeeding, and to ask businesses to pay more and more, knowing full well that those resources are not being well expended.”

Business NSW chief executive Daniel Hunter agreed the current system was “broken”.

He told the inquiry the nominal insurer, the private sector workers compensation scheme, had seen premiums rise by eight per cent each year, and that “on dollar terms, the scheme went backwards by $1.8bn last year, all while premiums went up by more than double CPI.

If nothing is done, Mr Hunter warned “then the scheme costs will send some businesses bankrupt”.

“There is also a human cost to this. The pressure and stress it places on business owners struggling to survive.

“NSW has a once in a generation opportunity to reform the workers compensation system.”

Asked if he thought the proposal was the right one to fix the problem, Mr Hunter said: “In short, Rome is burning”.