New South Wales Labor’s controversial amendments to severely limit workers’ right to access compensation for psychological injuries suffered at work was not passed by the Legislative Council on June 5 and has been sent to a second parliamentary inquiry.
The bill, with some minor amendments, had been voted up in the Legislative Assembly on June 3.
Mark Morey, Unions NSW secretary, said on June 10, that the new inquiry “means … more scrutiny … to expose the real impact of this bill”, which is to cut benefits for people suffering psychological injuries after 2.5 years, with medical treatment cut off after 3.5 years.
For a worker to receive long-term support under the Labor’s proposed changes, they would need to suffer a whole person impairment (WPI) rating of 31% rather than the current figure of 15%.
Morey described it as “a win” because it would allow the bill to be improved. “This only happened because union members and injured workers took action.” He said unions will keep pushing to “stop cuts that would deny mental health and financial support to essential workers who suffer a psychological injury while doing some of the toughest jobs in our communities”,
The (IEU) on June 4 called on the NSW government to “fix” its bill which specifies that workers who sustain psychological injuries can only claim compensation if their injury is caused by an “event” which the bill specifies.
“There is a narrow list of events, including being subjected to violence or the threat of violence, witnessing a traumatic incident or being the victim of bullying or racial or sexual harassment.”
Union pressure forced the government to drop the requirement that a worker who was injured because of bullying or racial or sexual harassment at work must first receive a ruling from the Fair Work Commission before they could access support.
The IEU said those most likely to need mental health care and support are essential workers in the health, emergency services and education sectors. Labor’s proposed changes would “overwhelmingly affect women, who form a big proportion of the health and education workforce”.
NSW Greens MP for Ballina Tamara Smith said the bill showed up Labor’s blatant disregard for the health and wellbeing front-line workers such as nurses and teachers “who are over-represented for psychological injuries in the workplace”.
Workers’ compensation firm Law Partners (LP) said it was still concerned with Labor’s amended bill as it falls short of protecting the psychological safety of workers. LP spokesperson Chantille Khoury said on June 9: “This is not just about policy, it’s about people. Teachers, nurses, first responders, and countless others who show up every day for our communities deserve a system that shows up for them when they’re injured. Reform should help them heal, not make them fight harder for care.”