Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988

Workers: All workers employed under a contract of service or training contract in Tasmania. Deemed workers under the Act include certain specified classes prescribed by regulation. Former workers are covered in respect of diseases that may only manifest after employment ends.

Employers: Must maintain workers compensation insurance cover under the Act unless approved to self-insure. Liable for compensation whether or not the worker contributed to the injury, subject to specified exclusions. Principals who engage contractors are liable for workers of contractors performing work for the principal's business (section 29).

Dependants: On a worker's death from a workplace injury, defined family members who were wholly or partly dependent on the worker's earnings are entitled to compensation.

Licensed insurers and self-insurers: Subject to the licensing, financial requirements, and reporting obligations in Parts IX and X.

WorkCover Tasmania: Has administrative, advisory, and oversight functions. The Board consists of the Secretary of the relevant Department as chairperson, plus five Minister-nominated members with expertise in injury management, workers compensation law, the insurance industry, and worker and employer perspectives.

Employer insurance obligation: Every employer must maintain a current policy of insurance against liability under the Act unless approved as a self-insurer (Part IX). Failure is an offence.

Rehabilitation obligation: Employers must, so far as is reasonably practicable, provide suitable employment or rehabilitation services to injured workers. Rehabilitation is oriented towards the worker's safe and durable return to work (sections 2A and Part IV).

Reporting and notification: Workers must notify their employer of an injury and claim compensation within specified time limits. Employers must notify their insurer of claims. Failure to notify can affect entitlement.

Injury management: Part IV establishes injury management as a scheme-wide framework. Employers and insurers must manage injured workers' claims to facilitate return to work.

Employer principal liability (section 29): A principal who contracts out work remains liable for compensation to the contractor's workers performing that work. The principal is entitled to an indemnity from the contractor.

WorkCover Tasmania Board (section 10): Functions include making recommendations to the Minister on workers rehabilitation and compensation policy and legislation; monitoring and reporting on the scheme; controlling and administering the Fund; promoting injury management and return to work; reviewing and monitoring the performance of licensed insurers and self-insurers; and monitoring the Nominal Insurer.

Ministerial direction (section 11A): The Minister may give written directions to the Board about the performance of its functions. The Board may object within 21 days. If the Minister proceeds after an objection, the direction and objection must be tabled in Parliament. The Board must comply once the process is concluded.

Presumption of disease causation (section 26): The Board may, by notice, specify occupations or exposures presumed to contribute substantially to particular diseases, by adopting instruments from Safe Work Australia or other prescribed bodies.

Fire-fighter presumptions (section 27): Where a worker suffers a disease listed in Schedule 5 and has been employed as a fire-fighter for at least the period specified for that disease, the worker's employment is presumed to have contributed substantially to the disease. The regulations may amend Schedule 5.

PTSD presumption for public sector workers (section 28A): Where a relevant worker (employed by the Crown, a Government Business Enterprise, or a State-owned company) suffers post-traumatic stress disorder, employment is presumed to have contributed substantially to that disorder, subject to the exclusions in section 25(1A) and (2).

Medical panels (section 50): The Board may form medical panels to determine medical questions, providing an expert alternative to court or tribunal determination of disputes about the nature and extent of injury, capacity for work, and degree of permanent impairment.

Accredited medical practitioners (section 77C): The Board may accredit medical practitioners to assess permanent impairment. Only accredited practitioners may issue certificates for certain purposes under the Act.

The Act contains offence provisions for employers who fail to maintain required insurance, authorised persons who obstruct or hinder inspections, and persons who provide false information. Penalty amounts are specified in the relevant sections. WorkCover Tasmania has authorised officers (section 150A) with inspection and information-gathering powers.

Claiming: A worker must notify the employer of an injury as soon as practicable. Claims for compensation must be lodged within specified time limits. Delay may result in reduced or lost entitlement.

Weekly payments: Begin after a waiting period and continue during incapacity, subject to review. The amount depends on the worker's pre-injury earnings, degree of incapacity, and applicable entitlement period.

Permanent impairment assessment: Where impairment is assessed as permanent, a lump sum is payable calculated using the AMA Guides as modified by the Act. Assessment is by an accredited person.

Dispute resolution: Disputes about entitlement are referred to the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal (Part V). Medical questions may first be referred to a medical panel. Tribunal decisions may be appealed to the Supreme Court on questions of law.

Fire-fighter disease timelines: For section 27, the prescribed minimum periods of fire-fighter service specified in Schedule 5 vary by disease. The date of injury for a disease is the date of first diagnosis, onset of incapacity, or death, whichever is earliest (section 27(5)).

Insurance Act 1973 (Cth): Insurers must be authorised under the Commonwealth Insurance Act 1973 to carry on insurance business in order to qualify as an insurer under this Act (section 3 definition of insurer).

Asbestos-Related Diseases (Occupational Exposure) Compensation Act 2011 (Tas): Asbestos-related diseases are excluded from the definition of injury in this Act and are compensated under the separate 2011 Act, except where expressly preserved by section 97(1)(b) and (c).

Workers' (Occupational Diseases) Relief Fund Act 1954 (Tas): No compensation is payable under Part III for a disease for which the worker is entitled to compensation under the 1954 Act (section 25(8)).

Safe Work Australia Act 2008 (Cth): Safe Work Australia may issue instruments specifying occupations or exposures that are presumed to cause particular diseases, which the Board may adopt under section 26.

Fire Service Act 1979 (Tas): The definition of career fire-fighter, volunteer fire-fighter, and occupational fire-fighter in section 27(8) cross-references the Fire Service Act 1979.

Relationships Act 2003 (Tas): The definition of caring partner (a family member entitled to death benefits) references the Relationships Act 2003.

Health Practitioner Regulation National Law: Medical practitioners and registered health professionals are defined by reference to registration under the HPRNL (section 3).

Journey exclusions are narrow: Section 25(6) provides that an injury does not arise from employment if it occurs while travelling between home and work, unless the journey was at the employer's request or direction, or if work-related, with the employer's express or implied authority. The exclusion does not apply to journeys between different places of employment.

Disease causation test is different from injury: For an injury that is not a disease, it must simply arise out of or in the course of employment (section 25(1)(a)). For a disease, employment must have contributed to a substantial degree (section 25(1)(b) read with section 3(2A)). These are different tests.

Mental health exclusion for management actions: Section 25(1A) excludes compensation for mental illness or psychological disorders that arise substantially from reasonable management action (transfer, demotion, discipline, counselling, cessation of employment, decisions about promotion or transfer), administrative action, or the failure to take such action where there are reasonable grounds for not doing so. This is a significant carve-out for stress-related claims.

Serious wilful misconduct bars compensation unless severe: Section 25(2)(a)(i) provides that compensation is not payable for an injury attributable to the worker's serious and wilful misconduct. The exception for death or serious and permanent incapacity preserves the right to compensation in the most severe cases.

Presumptions are rebuttable: The fire-fighter disease presumption (section 27) and the PTSD presumption for public sector workers (section 28A) are both rebuttable presumptions. An employer or insurer can rebut them with contrary evidence.

Principal liability survives contractor failure: Under section 29, the principal remains liable even if the immediate employer (contractor) fails to insure or has become insolvent. The principal's right of indemnity against the contractor is not a prerequisite to liability to the worker.

Warehouse worker injured by forklift: A warehouse worker employed by a logistics company is struck by a forklift while on the warehouse floor during a shift. The injury arises out of and in the course of employment under section 25(1)(a). The employer's licensed insurer is liable for weekly payments during incapacity, medical expenses, and any permanent impairment lump sum.

Office worker developing a stress-related disorder: A government department manager is subjected to a workplace investigation. The resulting anxiety disorder is claimed as a workplace injury. Under section 25(1A)(a)-(c), compensation may be excluded if the investigation consisted of reasonable administrative action taken in a reasonable manner. If the administrative action was unreasonable, compensation may be payable.

Volunteer fire-fighter developing leukaemia: A volunteer fire-fighter who has served for more than the prescribed period for leukaemia under Schedule 5 develops leukaemia. Under section 27, the worker's employment as a fire-fighter is presumed to have contributed substantially to the disease. The employer must pay compensation unless the presumption is rebutted by contrary evidence.

Contractor worker injured on principal's site: A sub-contractor's employee is injured on a principal's construction site. Under section 29, the principal is liable to pay compensation to the worker regardless of whether the sub-contractor had adequate insurance. The principal is entitled to an indemnity from the sub-contractor.