Trucking body joins industry groups seeking to alter expense of common law aspect of scheme
October 11, 2013
The Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) is throwing its support behind a campaign to change workers’ compensation scheme.
The QTA has joined several industry groups calling on the State Government to introduce workers’ compensation amendments
to reduce the associated financial burden.
“Common law damages claims remain well above the historical average and account for a disproportionate amount of the overall cost of scheme,” QTA CEO Peter Garske says.
“Currently the common law process represents an expensive means of awarding compensation to workers compared to the statutory process for injuries assessed as zero or a low work-related impairment (WRI) percent.
“The heavy vehicle road freight industry understands that sometimes a worker must seek recourse through common law and indeed we do not seek to deny access to compensation for workers who have significant ongoing impairment as the result of sustaining a work related injury.
“Rather, the industry believes this issue must be considered against achieving the most efficient means of delivering fair outcomes for all stakeholders.”
He believes a threshold of at least five per cent of WRI would relieve workers, leaving those injured with higher WRI with appropriate recourse to common law.
“QTA calls on the Queensland Government to support our industry by removing this financial burden created by the promotion by a small section of the legal industry in promoting to employees an opportunity to double-dip through both statutory claim and common law claim notwithstanding the fact that in many cases the WRI is negligible,” Garske says.
