HR Business Direction saves employer $50,000 via successful claim review

A risk management focus is essential to any successful workplace health and safety program.  HR Business Direction provides a broad range of risk management services aimed at eliminating or minimising risk both before and after workplace injury occurs.

One such example of HR Business Direction’s risk management services involved a client who had been informed that WorkCover had accepted a psychological injury claim despite the employer’s significant concerns.

In an initial meeting with the client, HR Business Direction’s consultant discussed the evidence and the options available and their likely outcomes. For the employer the case was a sensitive one, which was already having wide-ranging impacts on the work environment. In this particular case our advice was that the case had reasonable prospects of success, and given that the longer term financial costs of statutory and common law claims were likely to be significant, it would be worthwhile proceeding with a worker’s compensation claim review.

HR Business Direction assisted the employer to obtain the necessary information to lodge a review of WorkCover’s decision with the worker’s compensation regulator. This included conducting an internal investigation on the employer’s behalf and requesting records from external parties. With the employer’s assistance, the worker’s compensation claim review documentation was prepared and submitted to the regulator.

The employers review was partially successful in the first instance with the regulator setting aside WorkCover’s original decision and requesting that further investigations be conducted by WorkCover prior to making a fresh decision.

Following completion of these investigations, WorkCover made the fresh decision that the claim was one for rejection, in the employer’s favour.  The impact of this decision was significant for the employer as the claimant had already been paid more than $50,000 in worker’s compensation benefits. In addition to this saving, the rejected statutory claim meant that the worker no longer had access to common law damages for the alleged injury. Given the claimants income, age and alleged incapacity for any kind of work in the future the cost of such a claim could easily have exceeded several hundred thousand dollars.

HR Business Direction assisted our client in their communication with WorkCover and successfully applied to WorkCover to have the cost of the statutory claim ($50,000) removed from the employer’s premium calculation.