Safe Work establishes strategy group to facilitate harmonised workers’ compensation laws
Comcare transfer raises questions
Comcare self insurers are on their way back to the states and territories for OHS purposes, but will the harmonised OHS laws that await them provide the national uniformity they need?
The Federal Government has recently introduced the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment (SRC) Bill 2009 that extends the moratorium on self insurers entering the Comcare scheme until 2011.
According to the Federal Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard, extending the moratorium will facilitate the transfer of self insurers from Comcare to state and territory jurisdictions when harmonised OHS laws are introduced in 2011.
‘The rationale for this is that uniform OHS laws and nationally consistent approaches to compliance and enforcement will remove the need for Comcare’s OHS coverage of licensees. The transfer of OHS coverage would also reduce the number of dual jurisdiction worksites,’ Gillard said.
As such, to remove the moratorium ‘would cause unnecessary complexities and duplication in that companies would be required to adapt to Comcare and then quickly change again to comply with the new model laws,’ Gillard added.
However, the draft model OHS laws contain a number of jurisdictional notes so it remains to be seen if the final laws will live up to expectations and provide Comcare self insurers with the same uniformity as the Comcare scheme.
Although it wasn’t completed in response to harmonisation, the Comcare Review recommended that self insurers remain in the Comcare scheme for OHS purposes and not transfer to the state and territory jurisdictions.
For more details, visit Federal Parliament and Comcare Review Report
NSCA Safety Bulletin
Thursday 29 October, 2009
