ACT Government Workers Compensation

ACT public servants are covered by the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (‘the Act’).  This is a federal government law.  It is the same law that covers Commonwealth public servants, as well as workers from Telstra, Linfox and Australia Post (to name a few).

You can claim for a frank injury or if your work has made a pre-existing injury or disease worse.  The basic qualification is that your work must cause your injury or disease.  However, there are slightly different causation requirements for an injury and a disease:

1. An injury must arise out of your work
2. A disease must have been contributed to, to a significant degree, by your work

As you will have noticed, the causation test for a disease is more stringent.  A disease will generally be those medical conditions that are not a frank injury.  For example, a frank injury will be a broken leg following a fall while a disease will be aggravation of a pre-existing back condition.

1. A worker must notify their employer that they are injured as soon as possible after becoming injured.
2. A worker must complete a claim form and provide a medical certificate.
3. EML will consider your claim. They may require you to provide specific information and send you to be examined by an independent medical expert
4. EML must accept or reject your claim.  This is called a determination.  Please note, there are no specific timeframes under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act requiring EML to determine your claim within a specific timeframe.  Absent a specific timeframe, EML must determine your claim within a reasonable timeframe.
5. If EML rejects your claim, you have 30 days from the day you were notified of the decision to submit a reconsideration request.  You may ask EML to extend this, but it is up to them whether or not to extend the time.
6. EML must affirm or set aside the determination.  There is no mandated timeframe to do this.
7. If you disagree with the reconsideration decision, you have 60 days to submit a merits review request at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Under the Act, injured workers may be entitled to:

1. Weekly payments
2. Medical treatment expenses
3. Lump sum permanent impairment and pain and suffering payments
4. Payments for household and care services
5. Death benefits

There are special rules limiting the circumstances when an employer is liable to pay you compensation for a psychological injury.  The ACT Government specially lists these.  The rules are generally referred to as the reasonable administrative action rule.  If you think you may have received a psychological injury from work, it’s very important you understand the law prior to making a claim.  See our article Comcare and Psychological Injuries.

People who receive a frank psychological injury and those who already have a diagnosis of a mental illness, may be eligible for compensation where work has made their illness worse.  These types of claims can be quite complex.

For more information see our article Comcare and Psychological Injuries.

We see many ACT and Federal workers who have made claims.  Some have done well while others, inadvertently, have dug themselves into a hole.  Here are a few tips from our experience to those contemplating a claim:

1. It is a no fault system, so you don’t need to show that your workplace did something wrong.  They may have, but trying to show that work did something wrong may only provide EML with opportunities to deny your claim.
2. Show that your work caused your injury.  If something other than work has impacted on your injury, you must be honest. However, make sure you do not overstate the impact of a non-work event.
3. Be careful what you put in writing, especially with psychological injury claims.  See our article Comcare and Psychological Injuries for more information.
4. Make a very good record as soon as possible about what happened when you were injured.

Comcare and EML claims are different to other workers compensation claims. This is not just because it involves a different piece of legislation.  Decisions made under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act come under a branch of law call ‘administrative law’.  This differs from ACT private and NSW workers compensation systems.  Therefore you need lawyers with knowledge and experience in administrative law. We understand administrative decision making and use this to seek remedies for our clients where:

• EML has failed to take into account relevant information when making a decision
• EML takes into account irrelevant information when making a decision
• EML makes a decision which is not based on evidence
• EML incorrectly applies law when making a decision
• EML makes a decision which is not the correct or preferable decision
• EML fails to make a decision when they are required to

You will work with Matthew Bridger and Thomas Maling. Matt has over 25 years’ experience as a workers compensation lawyer.  Tom initially trained as a Registered Nurse and worked in mental health, and has maintained a keen interest in this area as a lawyer.  He also worked for the ACT Government in an administrative law capacity.  We understand the impact a workplace injury has on your life:    physically, emotionally, and financially.