A lot of 2013 for my family has been taken up by leaping though hoop after hoop (with a shattered leg) after a bad accident, that was avoidable, at work. I won't lie, OH&S was something that I have always considered a bit over the top, causing employee and employer time spent on unnecessary paperwork. I could always see the practical side of it, but mostly saw it as replacing common sense and courtesy that I stupidly thought most people had.
Though out the process we have been made feel like common criminals out to get any dollar we can after delaying our return to work and later when we attempted to quit. Information, besides a list of obligations are extremely limited and there does not appear to be any law protecting employees from employers that bully and manipulate the employee. What are other peoples thoughts and experiences?

Bec welcome to the real world.
Sorry but that is the truth of the matter.
As an ex Union official I watched as both work industry and roads trauma events saw massive down grades in injured persons pay outs and medical assistance.
No way around another truth fraud in claims, including an under ground within a migrant community that faked cars smashes both to receive the insurance and a pay out for injury's.
As is so often the case we swung the pendulum too far in fixing these problems.
I by the way left out Ambulance chasing Lawyers who fed on the industry.
Unions confronted State governments and in truth the last Labor Federal one, but lost badly.
Current ALP supported? work cover system is based on the worst example of all the states.
Not the still poor but best one NSW.
Personal insurance in my view should be held by every worker.
And what a better world it would be if politicians and others had chased and convicted the frauds.
They remain free, folk like you are paying for their frauds.

In this instance I am going to defend the "Ambulance chasers" as I have no idea how I would have survived the last 7 months without them. I couldn't give two hoots about the amount of compensation, its all the threatening and lies that come with it. We ended up quitting and am now involved in the "Non Compliance" side of things.

Having been both a compo claimer many years ago, and a nurse working for Insurance companies at one time, I can say that I would do anything to avoid compo claims if I could.

Even after I fell over at work last year, and eventually had to have surgery, I never told anyone it happened at work.
Luckily, no one saw me fall over.

Workcover are ok if it is just a small claim, but if it drags on, they are ruthless and biased towards the employer, no doubt about it...

Sorry Bec but for me the pay out is every thing.
A workers so badly injured that work life is ended, even if only 20 would swap the cash to just return to the day before the event.
Almost every one of them will tell you that.
But while some may see every claim as false most indeed nearly all are not.
Some result in life in a wheelchair and now the NDIS seems under threat, we move further away from supporting a better life for many.
We all too often slash cut and burn rather than fix the problem.
In relation to Lawyers good ones are gold but the savage costs some took from injured party,s in part is a reason governments first looked at change

Bec_young mum of 2,

The treatment and progress of a claim depends on the support the employer gives to it. That is expressed very early. Don't rule out personality either. Bluntly, someone close to and well thought of by management is unlikely to encounter the insurer's hired guns. Those outside of the inner circle will have a rough ride.

There is a reason why certain professionals are the preferred 'independent' assessors on the insurer's panel.

The world is not a fair place.

Belly, "No way around another truth fraud in claims, including an under ground within a migrant community that faked cars smashes both to receive the insurance and a pay out for injury's"

You grasp a very prickly nettle there. I cannot remember a time when migrants from certain countries didn't have a scam going. Far too sly for the Aussies. Not PC to mention any of it though. Housos gets away with blunt satire, but limited to injury and disability pensions.

Bec I only wish your partner could return to the day before the event.
While no longer working I with out any fee or payment continue to help those who have no one to help.
And even the best and most reputable of employer/compensation Lawyers will fight to destroy your claim.
And sadly in the past SOME no near all Lawyers representing the injured party took more than a fair share, after a win.

My remark about SOME in a particular ethnic group,in no ways was meant to be racist.
What set that criminal group apart was its planning and the ethnic back ground of every one involved.

Hi there BEC_YOUNG MUM of 2...

I'm sorry to hear of your awful treatment at the hands of some of these unscrupulous Worker's Comp. solicitors. Most of us who've spent our entire lives working, have needed to claim on Worker's Compensation at least once in our lives, if not more. And I think it was someone herein who commented inter alia, a small claim generally doesn't attract the same level of indignation of the Insurance Underwriters. Therefore, it's only when the big dollar signs start flashing, they seem to get their nickers in the proverbial knot.

Over thirty years ago, there was a massive 'Imposition on the Commonwealth' (Fraud) Brief run by the then, Commonwealth Police Force, alleging a large scale ethnic conspiracy involving medical Doctors and many dozens of other defendants, all from the same ethnicity, allegedly ripping off the C'wealth government to the tune of millions of dollars.

I'd be happy to identify the ethnic group at the centre of this conspiracy, but I'm not entirely sure whether or not the convictions were upheld on appeal or dismissed. I was aware there were hundreds of charges NETO'd by police, and hundreds more; 'nolle prosequi' - Why, I have no idea. Other than some critical evidence was comprised, thus much of this material was not offered ? A bungle to end all bungles ?

I mention this BEC, only to try and explain why both governments and Insurance Companies adopt such a suspicious and wary attitude, whenever they have a need to deal with those poor folk who present with protracted and difficult claims. Behind every claim (perhaps) there lies a massive fraud ! Particularly if you are unfortunate enough, to possess a surname belonging to a certain ethnic derivation or provenance.

Anyway, I certainly hope that it all works out OK for you and your children, and you can finally get well, and commence to get some positive aspects back in your life.

Bec_young mum of 2, the truth is that work cover, also previously known as workers comp is a system that was plagued with fraud, so much so that premiums are now at ridiculous levels.

While I am the first to admit that there are some dodgy employers out there, the bulk of fraud came from the claimants, as many saw and still see it as an easy meal ticket.

No matter how much crap you have to go through during a claim, it means little to a scammer who would usually be ripping of centre link as they have no problem with being messed around.

As an employer myself (previously for 23 years) work cover has become a huge expense and one that often deters people from goimg into business.

The other problem is that once a long standing claim is running against you, accident or not, your premiums go through the roof.

Back innthe mid 90's my premiums went from $2500 per year to $15,000 just because of a fraudulent claim that was latter proven to be just that. But unfortunately, as an employer, you are guilty before proving your innocence. Same goes for a claimant I guess.

Bec here in my mate Rechtubs post you seethe other side.
He a small business man and to be frank, anti workers rights one.
Me a Unionist all my life then an Official.
Rechtub sees the issue just about right, nothing he said here is wrong.
I know a small difference, that fraud including all I spoke of above drove the change.
And you can not state enough too much change an unbalanced lurch away from fairness.
We should fix the wrongs,get work cover inspectors out working on fixing work place safety.
Get courts to imprison offenders.
But Bec we took the easy way out we always do.
And it always will be folk like you who suffer.
A reality exists, I did not put Devils horns on every morning to go to work.
Did not joyfully hunt bosses , my safety inspections did not oppress the boss.
Some times more that Rectub would think my workplace safety inspection was at the bosses invitation, as a way of seeing the little things he/she had overlooked.
Room exists for the better unions to play that roll, but the few blacken the whole.
Work place safety is far too important to fight over
I regret your situation Bec

Thanks everyone for your support, Its a hard one, unfortunately there are, as there always is, that minority that have made it hard for the rest of us. I feel for employers that pay to have this cover, and for those paying for premiums that are going through the roof.
Our claim is for a crushed,internally degloved leg, the amount of time it has taken to heal is proving to be a pain for all involved. The hardest part for us is our employer, he doesn't want us there and we don't want to be there. We have since quit..which means of course that we loose our claim and income, But it is much better for hubbys mental health.
Belly, I wish everyday to return to that day, or the one that we started working for this employer. Or even the first time he demanded the grain trucks lift up directly under powerlines, should have got the heck out then!

Bec I understand and in my view you have such a strong case of negligence based on not taking saftey in to account you can not be beaten.
Unfortunately you know it is not like that.
A trade unionist till death I fight the extremes in unionism, till death.
They every bit as bad as bad bosses are a living insult to unionism, living in a past that is long gone
Gone too is the Aussie fair go, we do not even pay lip service to those like your husband you and the kids.
I hope we one day fix it not change it so victims get the second kick in the guts they get now

Sorry to hear about a young 26 year old man killed on the job at the Packer project at Barangaroo (Sydney's 2nd Casino). The young man was a graduate of the Koori Job Ready Program and had only been on the job for 2 weeks.
One of the real untold stories in Australia is the number of workers killed every year 'on the job'. Many of these death could be avoided if a little bit more care had been taken.
People who knock unions should take a look at "safety" in many non-unionised work places. Many employers turn a blind eye to unsafe work practices, for them its all about getting the job done, and boosting the bottom line.
Over the years in the industrial world I have personally witnessed horrendous practices when it comes to safety. Everything from taking guards off machines to an unlicensed kid operating a bulldozer.
One of the true Australian's doing a great job is Brian Parker from CMUFE. Brian and his union do their best on saftey, but there are a lot of 'cowboys' out there.

http://www.safetyaustraliagroup.com.au/news-resources/safety-news/59-81-australian-workers-killed-at-work

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/scaffolder-who-fell-30-metre-to-his-death-not-mentored-union-20140109-30jkg.html

Paul, it is my understanding that this guy was not authorized to be at this location when the accident occurred.

So without having the facts, one can only speculate as to what happened, but I see two possible breaches, one being lack of supervision, the other being lack of respect for rules put in place to prevent such tragedies occurring, as there is a chance this guy knowingly went where he was unauthorized to be.

Let's wait and see before we lay blame.

Bec, it often amuses me how the likes of Belly can come to a conclusion without even knowing the facts. It's almost typical of unionists to find employers guilty until proven innocent.

So until anyone can lay judgement on who's to blame, they would need to know just what happened.

It's like the guy who Paul has just referred to, who can lay judgement on this case until the facts are known.

So in your husband case, was he partly to blame, if not, why would you walk away because work accidents that are no fault of the victim are pretty much an open and shut case.

Just curious, not judgmental by the way.

There are a lot of ambit claims and outright fraud in work cover. So why not give the premiums of work cover to an employees super. Thus in the building industry employees get 19% super but lose money if they make a claim. Eliminate the insurance parasites.

Workers comp send many small businesses to the wall because premiums escalate to cover the cost of a claim. Hence this adds to unemployment.Everyone needs to be made more responsible.

Yes Arjay, that's a great idea, because you can actually have your own personal injury insurance within your super.

Now not only would that cover work related accidents, it would also cover accidental injury sustained during out of work/recreational injuries.

Work related injuries could still be investigated and, if an employer was found to be negligent, then a claim can be made against their public liability insurance as all employers must have this nowadays.

At least this way, rouge employers would see their PL premiums go through the roof, while compliant employers would not suffer from industry based premiums, as they do now under work cover, as premiums today are a percentage of wages, determined by the industry group standard, which means compliant employers get shafted.

To me it would be a very rare win win.

Great idea Arjay!

I think we need to look toward super for many things, like maternity leave for instance.

BTW, not meaning to blow my trumpet, but in the 23 odd years I had butcher shops, (a high risk under WR), I only had two claims.

One was as a result of a guy turning up intoxicated and refusing direct orders to stop work, the other for not wearing safety gear (mesh glove) that was provided.

Yet I paid the industry standard.

Thanks rehctub. I do get a few good ideas, however the powers of oligarchy have too much control over our Govts.

I suspect a revolution is about to happen in the USA but will the population have enough nous and intelligence not to fight each other? Most of them know not who the enemy is.