Managing a business can bring a host of challenges. Supply chain delays, staff issues, cyber security, accidents and any number of other matters can interfere with business viability and profitability, not to mention pandemics and lockdowns.
The last thing you need is to have your costs ramped up by matters beyond your control, such as hikes in your workers comp premiums. Here’s what Business NSW is doing to ease the burdens and help your enterprise to thrive.
Wins for the business community
With its mission to maximise the potential of all Australian businesses, effective engagement by Business NSW is delivering real benefits.
For example, certain workers comp issues have long been a bugbear for business. While everyone wants to see that injured workers are properly looked after, inefficiencies and other problems in the workers comp scheme can mean the direct and indirect burdens on business mount up, as legal and medical costs escalate and return to work rates decline.
In addition to the difficulties of negotiating the scheme and the risk of being held liable for injuries and illnesses that are not really work-related, the poor return to work outcomes have the potential to increase your premiums. That’s why the focus of Business NSW in 2022 will be on improving injury and claims management practices and strengthening regulatory oversight of icare, to ensure they manage the scheme as it was intended.
Support from behind the scenes
The workers compensation scheme is notoriously difficult to get right. A century ago, a bad accident at work often reduced injured workers and their families to destitution – and horrible, maiming injuries were not uncommon. In principle and in its broadest outlines, it’s right and proper to support people harmed by their work.
In practice, however, it’s extraordinarily hard to get the scheme to balance so that injured workers are adequately supported while they recover, without putting an onerous financial load on employers. Inevitably, a significant amount of the fund put together with employers’ premiums drains off for medical and legal costs, and a rash of other glitches creep in to create obstacles or inequities of one kind or another. That’s why constant engagement with government and other stakeholders to keep updating the workers compensation scheme is so important.
But behind the scenes, Business NSW is working hard to help identify and resolve any troubling issues, and successfully working with government on behalf of business owners.
Multiple pieces of workers comp legislation
With three different laws – the Workers Compensation Act 1987, Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 and State Insurance and Care Governance Act 2015 – applying to work injuries in NSW, it can be difficult for employers to be sure about where they stand and how best to proceed in the event of an incident.
Business NSW has long been advocating for the different pieces of workers comp legislation to be consolidated and streamlined into a single instrument, and decision-makers have listened. The recent McDougall Review into the workers comp scheme recommended that the three Acts should be reviewed, reconciled and combined into a single piece of legislation.
Spiralling claims costs and poor return to work rates
It’s been widely reported that insufficient oversight of the medical costs of claims resulted in significant over-servicing and over-billing by medical and other health professionals – and that those costs are ultimately borne by employers.
Business NSW has consistently advocated for the legislation to be amended so it clearly outlines the rights and responsibilities of the relevant government agencies, and for their systems to be reviewed and adapted to improve decision making, including giving written reasons for decisions about liability for injuries.
In this, too, the recommendations set out in the McDougall review show that the push from Business NSW has been successful. With clearer objectives and continued investment in skills development, claims management capacities should improve, easing the financial burden on business.
Without constant engagement and advocacy on behalf of business, the workers compensation scheme can become a burden on employers and staff. That’s why advocacy and engagement in this area remains a top priority for Business NSW and will be a key focus for business in 2022.
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