What do I do if I am injured at work?
A work injury, particularly a serious one, can have long lasting impacts on your physical and mental wellbeing and can have an immediate impact on your ability to earn your pay and pay your bills and rent or mortgage.
It is important to take steps to protect yourself by doing the following important things:
- Report the injury to your employer:
Employers should keep an incident report book or online register. At the very least, report the injury verbally to your supervisor or boss and, even better make the report in writing. - Seek medical advice and treatment:
Either see your general practitioner, or if more serious and you were taken to hospital, seek advice on whether you need time off work and what treatment you require.
Even if the injury is minor and you recover quickly, often this is not known initially and we strongly recommend that a WorkCover claim be lodged. We can help you lodge the claim, including helping you to complete the claim form and even lodge it for you. We are happy to do so on a “no win, no fee” basis. In many cases, we do not charge at all for assisting or providing advice to lodge a claim.
If you want to lodge a claim then you need to do the following:
- Complete a claim form;
- Obtain a WorkCover Certificate of Capacity from your general practitioner for a period of no longer than 14 days;
- Lodge both the claim form and medical certificate with your employer.
You do not need to lodge both at the same time and they can be lodged separately. We strongly recommend that you keep at copy of the claim form and WorkCover Certificate of Capacity before you lodge it, or we will do so if you engage us to do assist with this process.
If your claim is not accepted, or there is no response within 28 days from when the WorkCover insurer receives the claim from the employer (the employer has 10 days to submit the claim to the insurer), then we strongly recommend that you seek legal advice from our firm regarding the steps that can be taken to dispute the rejection, including, initially, conciliation, which is an informal process through the Workplace Injury Commission.
We can advise you further about other steps that can be taken to challenge the rejection of your claim, which can include, ultimately, legal proceedings if required.
Most claims however are accepted and once accepted a range of benefits are payable. A summary of these are set out below but we can provide you with further advice regarding particular issues or queries regarding these entitlements and others.
Weekly Payments
Weekly payments for lost wages are paid initially for the first 13 weeks (3 months) at the rate of 95% of your pre-injury earnings. This can include more than one job and can include overtime and penalty rates, at least for the first 12 months.
If you are able to get back to work but not to your normal hours, you can still receive weekly payments, being a top up on top of what you earn on your reduced hours.
Normally weekly payments are paid only for 130 weeks (2½ years) of incapacity, either partial or total. In some limited circumstances, weekly payments can continue beyond 130 weeks and we can advise you further about that if necessary.
It is important to obtain WorkCover Certificates of Capacity every 28 days after the initial 14 day certificate and submit those to your employer and, again, keep copies.
If you are a member of a Union and your employment entitlements are under an Employment Agreement or Award, you may be entitled to make-up pay. Your Union can advise you about that.
Compensation for Medical & Like Expenses
In the vast majority of cases, WorkCover will pay or reimburse you for 100% of your medical bills, including initial hospital and ambulance bills, seeing your general practitioner and any specialist doctors, medication costs and allied health.
In some limited circumstances some hospital costs are not fully covered, particularly if surgery is required and, in some cases, allied health providers charge above the WorkCover schedule fee so you won’t recover all of it. The gaps however are much less than private health insurance and again, in many cases, are nil. Other benefits can include payment for travel expenses to attend appointments with your doctors, payment for cleaning and gardening services, assistance with rehabilitation and return to work, modifications to your home or work for long term injuries and even modifications to a vehicle in cases where people have suffered serious and permanent injuries.
There are a range of other benefits available and we can discuss those with you.
Lump Sum Compensation for Permanent Disability:
If after you have had medical treatment and recovered as well as you can but have been left with some permanent disability or impairment, then you may be entitled to lump sum compensation under an impairment claim.
In most cases of physical injuries, you only need to establish a degree of whole person impairment of 5% to have an entitlement to a lump sum compensation payment. In some other cases, the threshold is 10% and for mental and psychological injuries the threshold is 30%
We are experts in preparation and lodgement of these claims and would be very happy to advise you about a claim and again we do these claims on a “no win, no fee” basis.
Common Law Claims
In some circumstances where a person’s injuries are serious and permanent, you may have an entitlement to a Common Law Damages payment or settlement. These lump sums are much greater than impairment benefits lump sums.
The claims are complex but there are two main tests or legal thresholds you must establish, being:
- That your injuries meet a test called “serious injury”, which essentially is a permanent and serious impairment of a body function; and
- That your injuries were caused by the fault or the negligence of your employer or another person, company or business.
Common Law Damages include compensation pain and suffering and if a person suffers at least a 40% loss of earning capacity, then also compensation for lost earnings in the past and into the future until retirement age, including lost superannuation.
We are experts in advising our clients about their entitlements to Common Law Damages claims and we are always happy to advise and investigate and pursue most claims on a “no win, no fee” basis.
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