General news

These changes will have significant ramifications for NSW workers – and thanks to union members standing united and advocating for fairness, the state government agreed to numerous concessions and improvements to their originally proposed bill, all of which were passed into law late last year.

These changes include:

• Removing the requirements for workers injured from bullying or harassment to obtain a finding at the NSW IRC or FWC before receiving weekly income payments or medical benefits.
• Securing a rapid eight-week assessment pathway for workers injured through bullying and harassment to receive immediate medical support, reach swifter resolution of their claim, alongside a greater onus of proof on employers to provide evidence for the claim.
• An expansion of commutation capacities to give injured workers greater freedom to exit the workers compensation scheme if they desire.
• New requirements on insurers to require a ‘reasonable prospect of success’ before being able to deny or appeal a workers compensation claim.
• The legislated establishment of an injured workers ministerial advisory group to provide regular input and feedback to the Minister for improvements to the scheme.
• An independent expert panel to conduct a review of the NSW Workers’ Compensation system to provide recommendations directly to a Joint Select Committee with a crossbench chair.
• Greater penalties for employers who underinsure.
• An exemption for workers injured through dust diseases from the change to the medical thresholds test from ‘reasonably necessary’ to ‘reasonable and necessary’.
• A commitment that any increases to the WPI thresholds will not apply retrospectively to workers already in the workers compensation system.
• A review of the Whole-Person-Impairment assessment tool by the Chief Psychiatrist.

Workers will lose under increased threshold  

Unfortunately, one major sticking point remains. Before Christmas, the NSW government revived an alternate version of its original plan to raise the threshold for support and push injured workers off the system.

This time, the government has struck a deal with the Coalition opposition.

The government intends to increase the whole-of-person-impairment (WPI) threshold for weekly income replacement payments and civil action over the next four years – eventually increasing the WPI threshold to 28% from 1 July 2029.

The government had originally planned to cut workers off from regular compensation payments after 2.5 years unless they could prove a 31% WPI.

A parliamentary inquiry found this threshold would be impossible for many workers to meet, and so the government shelved the plan.

However, under a new compromise with the opposition, the WPI will instead increase as follows:

• 25% from 1 July 2026
• 27% from 1 July 2027
• 28% from 1 July 2029

These increased thresholds are designed to make it harder for seriously injured workers – including those who have suffered psychological trauma – to receive much needed entitlements.

And while unions welcome the fact that injured workers will be given an additional year of benefits (increasing to 3.5 years before their payments end), no amount of additional support makes up for the fact that too many workers will be cut out of the scheme altogether under the new scheme.

UnionsNSW is vigorously opposing this proposed bill, which is expected to be voted on by NSW politicians in early February.

There’s still time to tell your local MP to use their vote to reject the bill and instead hold insurers to account.