A contentious overhaul to Australia’s largest workers’ compensation scheme would make it “virtually impossible” for people to lodge successful claims and strip away the rights of employees, unions and experts have argued.
An inquiry into the proposed changes, which Chris Minns’ government claims are necessary to avoid unsustainable costs, began on Friday.
The New South Wales workplace health and safety laws and workers’ compensation scheme protect more than 3.6 million workers.
Under the proposed changes, psychological injuries caused solely by work pressure would no longer be eligible for compensation, and to make a claim in the context of suffering sexual harassment or bullying, workers would be required to front a court or tribunal.
The principal lawyer at the Australian Lawyers Alliance, Shane Butcher, told the ABC on Friday the legislation, if passed in its current form, would “drastically strip away” the rights of individual workers, particularly those who suffered psychological injuries.
“There has been little to no consultation until recently and the people of NSW should be entirely concerned they will have no right at all if the changes go through without amendment,” he said.
“From how to lodge a claim to how psychological injuries are defined, to the threshold you need to meet to claim compensation and when you can get compensation – it makes it virtually impossible.”
Butcher conceded there had been increased psychological claims in NSW but “what we cannot do is cut them off and leave them to fend for themselves”.
“People who are navigating that system who need help, and separating those who try to exploit it – what is the balance? This bill does not have any balance,” he said. “It simply strips away rights.”
The Unions NSW secretary, Mark Morey, told the inquiry there was “ample room for reform” but the legislation was “dragging us back to a time where we ignored psychological injury and mental health wellbeing”.
Speaking to reporters after fronting the inquiry, Morey said the “poorly drafted piece of legislation” would ensure “the vast majority of workers will never get the support they need”.
“These are … child protection workers, nurses, teachers, people who are beavering away every day and just getting their job done, and when they need a little bit of mental health support … this government is ripping it away from them to fill a black hole in their budget,” he said.
The NSW treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, told the inquiry the exposure draft was not the government’s final position. But in the absence of reform, there was “the risk of an entire collapse”, he said.
Mookhey rejected suggestions that Labor’s refusal to inject more cash into the fund unless the reforms were passed was a “brazen ultimatum”.
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He said funding was needed for schools, hospitals and the state’s other needs – including preventing psychological injuries from occurring.
The deputy president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Amber Flohm, said teachers experienced injuries that had a “significant impact on their mental health” through the course of their work and they deserved support.
“That is vicarious trauma of student and staff events that they often, far too often, are experiencing,” she said, citing bullying, unsustainable workloads and burnout.
“The treasurer has issued a blunt instrument to a complex mental health issue. Are we seriously suggesting that a teacher who was catatonic trying to deal with the trauma of losing a student should bear the brunt of that cost deficit?”
The Australian Association of Psychologists vice-president, Katrina Norris, said the scheme was entirely unfit for managing psychological injuries, which faced the same requirements as physical injuries.
She said raising the threshold of “permanent impairment” to 31%, as had been proposed, could conceivably exclude nearly all workers from making a legitimate mental health claim.
“This is akin to trying to fit a round peg into a square hole and has created problems with the way claims are assessed and managed,” she wrote in a submission.
“An impairment of 15% requires an individual to be unable to function independently in almost all domains of life.”
