SA government attacks WorkCover

By Liam Mitchell

ADELAIDE -- The state government has introduced legislation to reduce workers' entitlements to compensation for injury under the WorkCover system.

Currently, employers pay a levy of 3.5% of their payroll to WorkCover. Employers and both political parties have been pushing for this amount to be decreased, even though WorkCover is estimated to be $97 million short for likely payments over the next 40 years.

The latest proposal was pushed through by Independent Labor speaker Norm Peterson, who threatened to bring down the Labor government if it rejected his plan to reduce employer contributions to 2.7% and severely cut workers' entitlements.

The Democrats came to the aid of the government by agreeing not to amend Peterson's bill in the upper house.

The bill will reduce the amount employers have to pay, limit work-related stress claims, restrict common law claims and redefine some injuries in order to reduce lump sum payments for them.

The union movement has responded with protests outside Parliament House and Peterson's electoral office. There are plans to highlight the issue during the Grand Prix on the weekend of November 7-8, and threats by the Australian Building and Construction Workers Federation and the Plumbers and Gasfitters Union to cease work on the scaffolding for the event.

The Liberals have called on the government to use essential services legislation to stop any disruption to the Grand Prix.

United Trades and Labor Council health and safety officer Kevin Purse said that the unions were “sick and tired of unwarranted attacks on WorkCover and injured workers' entitlements.

“Stop-works, 24 hour strikes, bans and rolling stoppages will take place in a wide range of industries to bring the message home to politicians.”

The campaign against WorkCover has been helped along by the Murdoch-owned Advertiser, which has called for massive reductions in both workers' entitlements and employers' contributions.

The Advertiser also ran a “scoop” on the number of claims made by workers on the Myer Remm building site, which ran massively over budget and over time. Instead of asking why there were many injuries on the site, the articles implied that workers were ripping off the system.

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