Administrative and scheme delivery changes

Workers’ Psychological Support Service

Since 2018 the Office of Industrial Relations has administered a grant for the Workers’ Psychological Support Service, which connects workers with a work-related psychological injury with existing community and social support services, including emergency accommodation and housing support, family and domestic violence services, grief and loss support, financial counselling, and social inclusion programs. Workers and their families can access the service prior to, during, or after they have made a claim.

Mine dust health support service

The Queensland Government has established the Mine Dust Health Support Service as a shared initiative between the Office of Industrial Relations, Resources Safety and Health Queensland and WorkCover Queensland to support mine workers with confidential access to counselling, and guidance regarding respiratory health screening, community supports and compensation entitlements.

Virtual hearings for medical assessment tribunals for injured workers

The Office of Industrial Relations developed new ways of working in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure continuity of medical assessment tribunal services in Queensland. Depending on a worker’s individual circumstances, a range of options including virtual hearings are now available to ensure the timely resolution of matters while respecting the safety of everyone involved.

Policy Developments

Gig Economy Review

The 2018 review of the Queensland workers’ compensation scheme, ‘The Operation of the Queensland Workers’ Compensation Scheme, report of the second five yearly review of the scheme’ by Professor David Peetz, identified there are some Queenslanders working in the gig economy who are not covered under Queensland’s workers’ compensation scheme, and recommended investigation into opportunities to protect vulnerable workers.

As part of the Queensland Government’s investigation into the possible extension of workers’ compensation coverage to certain gig workers (such as ride share drivers and food couriers) a Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) was released in 2019. Written submissions have now closed. The Government is currently considering the submissions and its response to the review’s recommendations into the gig economy.

National Injury Insurance Scheme – Regulatory Impact Statement

Queensland’s National Injury Insurance Scheme (NIIS) provides for lifetime treatment, care and support needs of people who have sustained serious personal injury in particular circumstances involving motor vehicle and workplace accidents.

Statutory responsibility for administration of lifetime treatment, care and support in the motor vehicle scheme lies with the National Injury Insurance Agency Queensland (the Agency), and for the workers’ compensation scheme, workers’ compensation insurers (Insurers).

As a safety net for seriously injured workers who have elected to leave the NIIS, the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 allows workers the right to apply for re-entry to the NIIS if a period of at least five years and other pre-conditions, as prescribed by regulation, have been met.

Regulations specifying the pre-conditions for re-entry were not made at the time of commencement of the scheme to allow for the development of scheme experience. As the scheme matures, and more participants decide to stay or take damages, appropriate regulations for re-entry are necessary to provide certainty for all.

On 15 June 2020, a Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement was published for eight weeks and sought feedback from stakeholders on regulating re-entry to the NIIS after accepting lump sum damages. The Government is considering the submissions made and preparing a Decision Regulatory Impact Statement for consideration in due course.

Silicosis research

WorkCover Queensland commissioned Monash University and the University of Illinois in a joint research literature review to understand the current state of knowledge to inform return to work and vocational rehabilitation support for workers diagnosed with work-related silicosis or other chronic work-related respiratory conditions, and to establish a way findings could be effectively translated into policy and practice. The review has been finalised and is published on the WorkSafe website.

In addition, in October 2020 the Queensland Government committed up to $5 million over four years for medical research into treatment to improve the health and wellbeing of workers suffering from occupational dust lung disease. This funding will support research to determine the efficacy and sensitivity of methods for early diagnosis and prevention of disease including anti-fibrotic medications, pulmonary rehabilitation, whole lung lavage and other developing treatments. This research is essential as there is currently limited information, data and robust research available on how we can best support and treat these workers.

Clinical guidelines for silicosis

The Queensland Government identified the need to provide clear guidance for health practitioners for the assessment and diagnosis of diseases related to respirable crystalline silica exposure. As a result, the Office of Industrial Relations established the Practitioner Guidance for Silicosis Reference Group, including key health specialists from the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists, and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.

The Guideline for assessing engineered stone workers exposed to silica was finalised in November 2019, received in-principle support from members of the Reference Group, and has been disseminated to the Reference Group for circulation to their members. The Guideline was published on the WorkSafe website in January 2020.

Legislative Amendments

Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2019

On 22 October 2019 the Queensland Parliament passed the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2019 (the Act). The objective of the Act was to implement 12 legislative recommendations made by Professor David Peetz in his report The Operation of the Queensland Workers’ Compensation Scheme: Report of the second five-yearly review of the scheme, completed in May 2018. The amendments are outlined below.

General scheme

• Clarify WorkCover Queensland’s ability to fund and provide programs and incentives that support employers improving health and safety performance, after consulting with the regulator under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 or any other relevant health and safety regulator.
• Extend workers’ compensation coverage to unpaid interns.

Insurers

• Require insurers to provide ongoing rehabilitation and return to work services if the injured worker has been unable to return to work after their entitlement to weekly benefits and medical expenses ceases. The employer’s obligations for rehabilitation and return to work are also aligned with their insurer’s obligations.
• Clarify that insurers have a discretion to accept claims submitted more than 6 months after the injury is diagnosed, if the injured worker has lodged a claim within 20 days of developing an incapacity for work from their injury.

Employers

• Provide an additional way that employers can ensure that rehabilitation and return to work coordinators are appropriately qualified, and requiring employers to provide details of their rehabilitation and return to work coordinators to insurers, to support compliance and the provision of advisory services to coordinators.
• Exempt expressions of regret and apologies provided by employers following a workplace injury from being considered in any assessment of liability for damages brought under the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 to align with the approach taken in the Civil Liability Act 2003.
• Require self-insured employers to report injuries and any payments made to injured workers to their insurer, aligning their obligations with the existing obligations on employers insured with WorkCover Queensland.

Psychiatric and Psychological Injuries

• Amend the meaning of injury for a psychiatric or psychological disorder to remove ‘the major’ as a qualifier for employment’s ‘significant contributing factor’ to the injury.
• Require insurers to take all reasonable steps to provide claimants with psychiatric or psychological injuries access to reasonable support services relating to their injury during claim determination.

Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2021

The Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2021 received assent on 20 May 2021 to provide presumptive workers’ compensation laws for first responders and eligible employees diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by a psychiatrist. The presumption will apply to workers or relevant volunteers who are:

● First responders responding to time-critical, often life-threatening incidents i.e. police officers, paramedics, firefighters, corrective service officers, authorised officers in child safety and nurses and doctors in certain areas and includes those working in the private sector; and

● Eligible employees in certain first responder departments who experience repeated or extreme exposure to graphic details of traumatic incidents through:

• attending the scene of traumatic incidents (e.g. first responders collecting human remains); or
• experience the incident as it happens to others (e.g. police communications officers); or
• investigate, review or assess traumatic incidents that have happened to others (e.g. a person repeatedly exposed to details from investigating child sex abuse complaints).

The presumption applies if the first responder or eligible employee’s PTSD is diagnosed by a psychiatrist in accordance with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5). However, if there is no specialist diagnosis, this will be arranged and paid for by the insurer. The presumption can be rebutted if it is proved the PTSD did not arise out of, or in the course of, employment or employment was not a significant contributing factor. However, the presumption cannot be rebutted on the basis of reasonable management action taken in a reasonable way.