One way to improve the rehab time for employees and reduce the possibility of long-term disability is vocational rehabilitation. Consider what vocational rehab can do for the employee and the insuring company in a workplace injury setting.
What are the rules for work in disability?
Section 53 of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act of 1998 was introduced to promote vocational rehabilitation for workers on disability. This means the State Insurance Regulatory Authority is within legal rights to develop and establish certain areas of work to promote healing for workers, which can help offset and reduce overall costs to the insurer.
How does it work?
The JobCover placement program allows certain employers to assign work for employees with a workplace injury to return to work in a different area to which they are best fit. There are a handful of assessments in which the employee would need to pass to qualify, but this work program is essentially designed to reduce some of the cost associated with time away from work.
It benefits the employee, but what about the employer?
As stated above, the JobCover placement program is designed to help reduce the total cost or offset the costs of training a new employee for a position. With that said, the incentive for employers varies depending on the time missed. For one to 12 weeks, the maximum compensation for insurers is $400 per week; for 13-26 weeks, the maximum is $500 per week, and for 27-52 weeks, the maximum is $600 per week. The incentive program will only span for the first 52 weeks and the incentive payment to the insurer is received at the end of each range interval. More on the JobCover incentive can be found here.
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Disclaimer – these articles are provided to supply general safety information to people responsible for OHS in their organisation. They are general in nature and do not substitute for legal and/or professional advice. We always suggest that organisations obtain information specific to their needs. Additional information can be found at https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/