This column appeared in the Spring 2023 edition of Workplace Issues magazine.
Say ‘WorkSafe Tasmania’ and you probably think of our Inspectors and Advisors who educate and guide employers and workers to improve safety management, or who investigate incidents and ensure compliance with work health and safety laws. Or perhaps you’ve dealt with our officers who process your high risk work licence or fireworks permit.
But there is also important project and policy work being done ‘behind the scenes’ to lay the foundation for a safer future for Tasmanian workers and employers.
A critical partner in this work is the WorkCover Tasmania Board. The WorkCover Board works with WorkSafe Tasmania and stakeholders (including employers, workers, doctors and insurers) to ensure a fair and equitable workers compensation scheme, good return to work outcomes, and safer workplaces for all Tasmanian workers.
The WorkCover Board supports initiatives that you’ve probably taken part in. The Safe Bodies, Safe Minds Conference held in July, and the WorkSafe Awards and WorkSafe Month coming up in October are notably high-profile events, putting the spotlight on reducing work-related injury, illness and death. Or perhaps you’ve interacted with our Advisory Service, or Worker Assist or the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce’s work health and safety advisors. And of course, you’re reading this magazine! All these are funded by the WorkCover Board.
The shared starting point for the WorkCover Board and WorkSafe’s partnership is our Strategic Plan for 2023-28. This plan was born from extensive consultation with representatives from unions, insurers, employer groups, and medical, legal and government sectors. The Strategic Plan states our shared vision, principles and goals. Our three guiding goals are safer and healthier workplaces, supporting workers with injury and illness, and building a collaborative health and safety culture.
The WorkCover Board is now investing in and collaborating with WorkSafe on projects that will improve safety, return to work and compensation outcomes and experiences for Tasmanian employers, workers, their families and communities for years to come.
In June, the WorkCover Board launched new post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) training for doctors and other health professionals. This will help doctors diagnose people with PTSD, and understand the treatment options available. The training is the result of working with Phoenix Australia (experts in trauma-related mental health and wellbeing) and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. This project is also overseeing online resources for workers experiencing PTSD, their family and employers, which will provide practical information to support recovery and return to work.
The personal, social and economic impacts of industrial death and serious injury is devastating and wide-ranging, and for those affected, the consequences they experience are life-long. So another WorkCover Board project addresses Safe Work Australia’s ‘National principles to support families following an industrial death’. These ten principles include ensuring families receive timely and co-ordinated notification, information and support following a workplace fatality. The project will outline what is needed (from different government departments and within the workers compensation scheme) to improve the support given to seriously injured workers and families affected by an industrial death.
Another project is analysing the workers compensation systems in the Tasmanian State Service, looking for ways to overcome obstacles and improve processes and outcomes. The project team is working with the University of Tasmania, using interviews with workers with injuries to understand their experience in the workers compensation system. Amongst other things, this project will pinpoint the factors that could help improve return to work outcomes for workers with injuries; and identify options for reducing mental health injuries.
In our last magazine we flagged the legislative reform that is happening for silica safety, on a national and state level. The Board is ensuring relevant industries (such as construction, mining and quarrying) understand the risks of exposure to silica dust, can comply with the changed legislation, and ensure safe working conditions for workers. We are currently developing new guidance material and online resources to help reduce workers’ exposure to silica dust — and therefore reduce the debilitating diseases and health conditions this exposure causes.
These projects represent a significant commitment from the WorkCover Board and WorkSafe Tasmania to drive long-term improvements in work health and safety, return to work and workers compensation. I’m optimistic that with this partnership, real and sustainable change will happen, not just in government systems and procedures, but in the lives of every Tasmanian worker and their families and communities.