WORKCOVER BOARD - RESIGNATION STATEMENT - 18 FEBRUARY 2008

18 February 2008

Statement from Janet Giles

Today I delivered a letter to Michael Wright, Minister of Industrial Relations submitting my resignation from the WorkCover Board.

The reason for my resignation is that as a Board member I am unable to comment publicly on any matter in relation to WorkCover.

This puts me in conflict with my position as Secretary of SA Unions which is to publicly advocate and lead campaigns for the rights of working people in our state.

Over the last 5 years the union movement has actively and positively participated on the Board in order to address issues facing the WorkCover scheme. We supported a number of changes to the operation and management of the scheme which we believe have set the right direction for the difficult job of turning the scheme around after a decade of mismanagement by the previous Liberal Government and senior WorkCover officials.

These changes included

• Replacement of nearly all the senior staff including appointing a new CEO.
• Development of a strategic plan that was linked to outcomes.
• Reviewing major parts of the scheme’s operations such as medical costs, self insured employers and rehabilitation.
• Employing one legal firm at a significantly reduced cost.
• Re-writing a more accountable contract for the agent including employing one agent- EML rather than the previous four agents.

Because of the huge task at hand, these changes only started effect in March 2006.

The scheme is now on track to be fully funded by 2013. It is a big and complex business and will take some time to turn around.

The rush by the Board to recommend significant changes to injured workers’ income and entitlements in an attempt to “starve them back to work” came out of the blue and was strongly opposed by the union representatives who produced a Minority Report to Minister in 2007.

I believe the push for cuts to worker entitlements is largely driven by the business lobby in order to reduce their WorkCover levy payments at the expense of injured workers.

The recommendations of the Board shift the blame and pain directly on to the injured worker and at the same time give employers a financial windfall. This is unfair and unbalanced and in our view contrary to the objects of the Workers Compensation Act.

For example, the Board recommends a worker on the minimum wage have their gross weekly wage $522.15 cut immediately to $496.00 as soon as they are injured and then to $391.60 if they haven’t recovered after 13 weeks. No family can survive on this money, especially one with extra strain of living with a work injury. 

In addition a worker would have their income cut completely if they challenge a decision about their workers compensation claim.

Unions in SA have met and determined that we will publicly campaign to ensure that working people in SA are protected when they are injured, but also are returned to work safely as well as quickly.

We call on the state labor Government to remember their core values of representing the interests of working people in our state and not support a reduction in injured workers entitlements.

There are other ways to improve the return to work rate in effective and humane ways which address the behaviour and practice of employers, service providers, WorkCover management and the agent. These should be explored by the state government rather than rushing to blame injured workers. We are willing to assist in this work.

Unions in SA have successfully campaigned for the last three years to protect workers rights against a hostile Federal Government. We will be disappointed if now we are forced to campaign against our state labor Government to protect the rights of injured workers but if we need to, we will.