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Industry call to insurers on Covid comp claims

NatRoad seeks uniform approach along NSW lines

 

How the nation’s workers compensation insurance sector tackles individual Covid-19 claims is in the National Road Transport Association’s (NatRoad’s) sights.

The association states that the country’s largest workers compensation insurer, icare, is protecting New South Wales employers from such claims.

NatRoad is calling on others to follow suit.

It notes that icare says it will exclude any claims arising from a positive Covid-19 test, or as a result of receiving a Covid-19 vaccination, from having an impact on its policy holders.

The agency says it wants to “protect any individual employer from disproportionately being impacted by Covid-19”.

Workers’ compensation provides financial support if a person is injured at work or becomes sick due to work, including contracting Covid-19 whilst working, NatRoad observes. 

It can include payments to cover employee wages while they are unable to work, payments for medical expenses and rehabilitation costs, and lump sum payments where an injury is deemed permanent. It can also include payments to families for work-related deaths.

“Workers compensation premiums are a significant part of the cost of doing business for employers in our sector, no matter their size,” NatRoad CEO Warren Clark said.

“After all that our industry has been through during the pandemic, this is good news.

“We trust that workers compensation providers in the other jurisdictions will do the same as icare.”

In some circumstances, Covid-19 may be a compensable workplace injury as a disease is included in the definition of injury under the NSW Workers Compensation Act.

 

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