State Parliament has passed important amendments to the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981.

The amendments:

• remove age-based limits on workers compensation entitlements
• extend the workers’ compensation safety net to enable workers employed by uninsured employers to receive common law entitlements; under certain circumstances. The amendments also make it mandatory for all employers to have insurance covering both statutory and common law liabilities
• restructure the dispute resolution system
• address legislative anomalies and inefficiencies.

Most of the amendments will come into effect on 1 October 2011. Changes to the dispute resolution process will take effect from 1 December 2011.

See: the Ministerial Media Statement, read a full copy of the Bill on the Parliament website, or for more detailed information see the legislative review page on our website.