Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

Trades Hall calls for WorkCover profit to be used to lighten workers' burden

The Victorian Trades Hall Council welcomed today's announcement by the Victorian WorkCover Authority of another positive financial performance and called on the Government to use the profit to increase spending on preventative programs and improve workers' entitlements under the scheme.

Results released today by the VWA detail a profit from insurance operations of $287 million for the six months to 31 December 2004. This is the eighth consecutive positive half yearly result for the Authority. The results also push the funding ratio of the Victorian WorkCover scheme up from 101% in July 2004 to 108%.

"We congratulate the VWA Board and senior management who have proved that an injured workers compensation system that delivers access to common law and decent permanent injury benefits and provides employers with the second lowest premiums in Australia can be sustainable", Trades Hall Secretary Leigh Hubbard said today.

"However, we are adamant that the Bracks Government and the VWA must use its record profit to fix compensation hotspots and increase support for OHS activity before even considering cuts to premiums."

"The trade union movement has behaved responsibly by not demanding total restoration of the benefits cut by the Kennett Government, but apart from the reintroduction of common law right to sue, the changes made since 1999 have been very modest. In the 2004 economic statement employers received cuts of $180 million per year in premiums. Increases to benefits have only been a fraction of that amount with many issues requiring urgent attention."

"The level of compensation to permanent and partially injured workers is in need of urgent review", Mr Hubbard continued. "These workers are effectively abandoned by WorkCover after two years. Their compensation abruptly stops but their hardship doesn't. The Authority needs to review the lack of support, both medical and financial, that the scheme offers these workers."

"WorkCover weekly compensation benefits also need some urgent attention. It has been almost a decade since the whole structure of weekly payments was looked at and we believe that close scrutiny would reveal that injured workers in Victoria get a raw deal compared with weekly payments in the rest of the country. It is low income families in particular that require additional support and compensation."

"The rates of workplace injury have stagnated at around 32,000 per year for the last 5 or 6 years. Each and every day 90 workers submit WorkCover claims to their employer. On top of this about

30 workers die each year in this State due to a workplace incident or accident. Since January 2000, more than 160 workplace deaths have occurred. These figures are appalling and lowering employer premiums is not going to reverse this malaise. Instead, the government needs to fund programs aimed at lowering this toll."

"We further urge the government to use some of the profits to properly fund the implementation of the new OHS Act."

"It is the strong position of Victoria's unions that the Bracks Government must not again reward employers' mediocrity with lower premiums".


More Archive

More Latest News

Powered By three squares