As a result of the Queensland Government’s five year review of Workers’ Compensation legislation, there have recently been several amendments that support injured workers in Queensland. The SDA made submissions to the review and lobbied for and won these improvements for members.

One of the important changes to the legislation is the implementation of the obligation for employers to report injuries sustained by workers for which a workers’ compensation claim may or may not be made.

Injuries must be reported within eight business days regardless of whether a worker makes a claim or if the employer does not agree the injury is compensable.
The reporting of an injury is not the same as making a claim for workers’ compensation and, if you wish to make a claim, you must follow the usual claim procedures.

You should report your injury to your employer if you sustain an injury such as:

• personal injury;
• disease;
• aggravation of a personal injury;
• disease or medical condition;
• loss of hearing; or
• death.

And the injury has:

• Arisen out of, or in the course of employment; and
• the injury will require medical treatment resulting in the issue of a medical certificate or will require the worker to have time off work (beyond the day of sustaining the injury) or time away from their normal duties to recover.

Even if you are not sure if you should report an injury, report it.

Because of these new obligations upon the employer being liable for not reporting incidents, many organisations will be more vigilant to ensure employees report actual or possible injuries and will potentially view the failure to report an injury as a failure of the employee’s obligations and a serious offence that may result in the employer formally counselling workers if they fail to report an injury.

We strongly advise members to report all injuries and keep their own records on the details when they have done so. If you injure yourself at work, we encourage you to see your own doctor and lodge a WorkCover claim.