THE Department of Employment has released a consultation paper outlining its proposed reforms to Australia’s Seacare scheme, along with expected costs and benefits.
The Seacare scheme is a national work health and safety (WHS) and workers’ compensation scheme for a very small proportion of the maritime sector. It consists of the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1992, which establishes a privately underwritten workers’ compensation scheme, and the Occupational Health & Safety (Maritime Industry) Act 1993, which provides WHS regulation for a small part of the industry.
Two recent independent reviews of the scheme have found it needs widespread reform. According to the Department’s consultation paper:
“There are longstanding issues regarding the coverage of the scheme that have created problems for governments, regulators, employers and seafarers.”
The paper says the ‘lack of certainty and clarity’ around the scheme’s coverage has resulted in a large number of disputed claims.
The government’s objectives in reforming the scheme are to:
- Ensure its WHS arrangements are effective in improving safety performance, protect workers and others against death and serious injury and are aligned with contemporary WHS laws;
- Ensure its workers’ compensation arrangements provide a sustainable framework for compensating employees for injuries incurred during work, provide a focus on early intervention and return to work, and place effective rehabilitation obligations on employees;
- Ensure the coverage of the scheme is clear so employers and employees can easily determine if the scheme applies, minimising claim disputation rates; and
- Provide efficient and effective governance arrangements, with adequately resourced regulators to monitor workers’ compensation arrangements and enforce compliance with WHS laws.
Options for reform
The government has put forward three broad options for reform in the consultation paper:
- Maintain the scheme in its current form (status quo);
- Abolish the scheme (deregulation); or
- Reform the scheme.
Reform options in the WHS area include repealing the Occupational Health & Safety (Maritime Industry) Act 1993 and extending the application of the Commonwealth Work Health & Safety Act to the Seacare scheme.
Reform options in the workers’ compensation area include restoring consistency between the Seafarers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1992 and the Seafarers Act, except where the particular circumstances of the maritime industry justify a different approach.
For further details about the review and the consultation paper, click here.
Submissions to the review are due by 5 February 2016.
To provide feedback to inform AREEA’s submission to the review, please contact AREEA’s senior workplace policy adviser, Lisa Matthews, on (03) 6270 2256 or at [email protected].
