The New South Wales (NSW) NSW government will appoint an employer and employee nominee to the icare board to improve the workers' compensation scheme, a move that has been welcomed by brokers and businesses as an early step on the road to improvements.
The announcement came as businesses across NSW will start to feel the impact of an average 8% rise in workers' compensation insurance on 1 July. The premium increases resulted from a high inflationary environment driving up claim costs, market volatility, and increasing psychological claims.
The National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) welcomed the government's efforts to improve the workers' compensation scheme.
However, it claimed that more needs to be done to ensure the ongoing affordability and sustainability of the scheme, with claims costs resulting in a significant increase to the cost of workers' compensation insurance for many NSW employers.
Premium hikes are set to “dramatically” affect some employers, was the message from NIBA CEO Philip Kewin.
“The review of the Workers Compensation Industry Classification and the removal of the Employer Safety Incentive, in favour of a new Employer Safety Reward, would mean that the real increase for some employers could be upwards of 30%, and that is before taking into consideration higher wage costs,” Kewin said.
Kewin took aim at the way employers are assessed for the Employer Safety Reward and aired concerns that many will find it impossible to meet benchmarks and tap into discounts they have held in the past.
“This will place significant pressure on businesses to meet their ongoing running costs,” Kewin said.
Business NSW CEO Dan Hunter described the board move as a necessary first step to improve icare.
“It is appropriate that both employers and employees are given a seat at the table as the hard work of fixing the fundamental issues with the workers' compensation scheme continues,” Hunter said. “Fixing the broken claims management system and addressing the return-to-work rates for injured workers must now be the top priority.
“At a time when businesses are doing it tough with spiralling energy prices and interest rate hikes, it's unacceptable that they should be feeling additional financial pain on account of a poorly run workers' compensation scheme.”
Business NSW looks forward to working closely with government on reforms to make sure icare is put “on the right footing”, Hunter said.
