Kierath changes WA compo plans

By Andrew McGain

PERTH -- The Court government announced on July 29 that it will “soften” its proposed changes to workers compensation. However, industrial relations minister Graham Kierath's new proposals are still a vicious attack on the rights of injured workers.

The original plans prevented injured workers with less than 30% impairment from suing negligent employers under common law. If implemented, the changes would have cut out up to 90% of common law claims, resulting in a sharp reduction in injured workers' pay-outs. Kierath's new amendment states that workers who lose more than $50,000 in income because of injuries will have access to the courts. This concession, however, is totally inadequate.

Workers on low incomes will have to wait years before they reach the $50,000 threshold in order to lodge a claim. In particular, it discriminates against women who are concentrated in low and underpaid jobs. Although employer negligence exists in all industries, it is especially prevalent in small, cash-strapped businesses where health and safety are a low priority. The effect of the new legislation is to punish those workers most in need of compensation: those in low-paid and injury-prone jobs.

While the WA Trades and Labor Council may wish to claim a partial “victory” in its compensation campaign, it is doubtful the government is bending to such pressures. The change is aimed primarily at appeasing angry lawyers, who will lose out under the new compensation system. Meanwhile Kierath is happy to keep bashing WA workers.

The Trades and Labor Council has consistently failed to tackle the Court government head on. On July 28 TLC assistant secretary Tony Cooke launched the TLC's compensation “campaign”. In typical TLC-speak Cooke told the crowd that “this meeting tonight is part of an attempt to try to generate a situation where we can convince the minister (of industrial relations) that the government has made a mistake”. Inspires confidence, doesn't it?

But don't despair; TLC Secretary Rob Meecham is getting tough. At a recent TLC executive meeting which he described as a “council of war”, he threatened to invite ALP heavyweights Jenny George and John Halfpenny to WA to address “the masses”. The minister is running for cover.

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