Workers compensation insurance - Tasmania
Product information
In any business, workers' safety is paramount. Guild Insurance’s workers' compensation is designed to protect your business and your employees if an incident does occur. Workers' compensation is a legal requirement in TAS, but that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult. We work closely with you to ensure your business is covered while providing exceptional, personalised service to help you along the way.
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Insurance cover for
Medical and hospital expenses
Wages
Rehabilitation services
Features and benefits
- Dedicated help: If a claim is made, your case manager will work with you to ensure there is minimal interruption to your business, as well as ongoing care and support for any employee who is injured.
- Comprehensive Coverage: Covers wages, medical expenses, treatment, and rehabilitation costs for injured workers.
- Legal Cost Coverage: Covers legal costs and expenses incurred with the insurer's consent in defending legal proceedings related to worker injuries.
- Risk Management Support: We provide risk management recommendations to help mitigate the risk of workplace incidents.
- Pay by the month: Flexible payment options to pay by the month with no extra fees.
- Peace of Mind: Allows you to focus on running your business without worrying about potential liabilities.
Workers' compensation insurance is a crucial safety net designed to protect both Employers and Workers in the event of work-related injuries or illnesses.
For Employers:
- Financial protection: covers the costs associated with workplace injuries or illnesses, ensuring that businesses are not financially burdened by these incidents.
- Legal compliance: under Australian law, it is mandatory for employers to have workers' compensation insurance to cover their employees.
For Employees:
- Income support: provides financial assistance to cover lost wages while recovering from a work-related injury or illness.
- Medical expenses: covers medical and hospital costs, as well as other rehabilitation treatments needed for recovery.
- Rehabilitation services: ensures a safe, durable, and timely return to work through various support services.
- Permanent impairment: offers lump sum payments if an employee suffers a permanent impairment.
- Fatalities: In the tragic event of a work-related death, it covers funeral expenses, periodic payments for dependents, and lump sum compensation to support the family.
Additional support:
Workers' compensation also includes other types of support such as education and training, domestic assistance, and access to networks of medical specialists and rehabilitation providers.
Maintaining a safe and healthy workplace is essential for the well-being of both employees and the broader community. Workers' compensation insurance plays a vital role in achieving this goal.
Determining the appropriate workers' compensation cover for your business depends on several factors:
- Single-state operations: if your business operates solely within one state, you need a workers' compensation policy that complies with that state's regulations.
- Multiple state operations: if your business operates in multiple states, you generally need to have a workers' compensation policy that covers each state where your employees work.
However, the specific provisions known as the "State of Connection" rules help determine which state's workers' compensation scheme applies to your employees. These rules consider factors such as where the employee usually works, where they are usually based, and where the employer's principal place of business is located.
The "State of Connection" rules are used to determine the appropriate jurisdiction for workers' compensation coverage when employees work across multiple states. These rules are based on the following factors:
- Where the employee usually works: the primary consideration is the state or territory where the employee usually performs their work.
- Where the employee is usually based: if the usual place of work does not determine the state of connection, the next factor is where the employee is usually based.
- Employer's principal place of business: if the first two factors do not determine the state of connection, the location of the employer's principal place of business is considered.
These rules ensure that employees are covered under the appropriate workers' compensation scheme, even if they work across multiple states.
Not just an insurance policy
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Common workplace errors and injuries in early learning centres
No employee wants to be injured at work. And no employer wants their staff to be injured at work. Guild Insurance knows that employees and employers have the best of intentions when it comes to workplace safety. Unfortunately, despite these good intentions, we see many cases where early learning workers are injured while at work,
and sometimes quite seriously. And it’s disappointing that many of these injuries could have been easily avoided.
Guild Insurance sees too many cases where an injury in an early learning centre has occurred while the educator was performing a task in an unsafe manner which was most likely preventable. See below five posters you can display in your service with common examples of injuries and tips on how to avoid them.
Examples of tasks performed incorrectly
The following are some of the common actions which lead to injuries in early learning services:
> Standing on swivel chairs instead of ladders to reach an item
> Picking up children rather than lowering to their height
> Lifting children onto a change table rather than having the child climb up steps
> Lifting something alone which is too heavy rather than asking a colleague for assistance
Training
It’s possible that one of the main reasons people perform tasks in a dangerous way is that they don’t fully appreciate the risk. They may have been taught that it’s wrong, however they may not understand why it’s incorrect and what could go wrong. Therefore, when teaching staff about the correct way to perform tasks, it’s important to not just tell them what to do and what not to do, but also stress the reasons why. They need to appreciate what could happen and what sort of injury they could sustain. They need to understand, for example, that when standing on a swivel chair, it can easily move, causing the person to fall off. This often leads to serious arm injuries, such as fractures, as the person has landed on the ground.
Reminders
Being told something only a couple of times, maybe during formal education or at induction, isn’t always enough to enforce learning and change behaviour. People often need to be continually reminded. Early learning services should be regularly talking about and promoting safety and correct techniques in the workplace. This could be a regular agenda item at team meetings. There could be signs around the service to remind staff of the correct way to do things. Staff could be commended when seen doing the right thing. Don’t make education a once‑off.
Rushing
One of the most common reasons people don’t do things as they should, is that they’re rushing and feeling they’re too busy. Too often when staff are busy at a service, they’ll try to do things quickly and will often look for workarounds to speed up tasks. Unfortunately, this can lead to unsafe practices and injuries. Taking an extra couple of minutes to look for an appropriate ladder or ask a colleague for assistance is surely better than suffering a serious long-term injury which may prevent someone from working for weeks or even months. Similarly, scanning the room for hazards prior to entering may aid in the prevention of a trip or fall.
Lead by example
Managers and senior staff need to be sure they’re leading by example. There’s no point telling your staff how to do things correctly and then doing it a different way yourself. And if you think you can do it quickly and get away with it, think again, as someone will see you. Not only are managers risking injury by doing things the wrong way, they’re also sending the wrong message to their staff. To create a workplace culture that values safety, all staff need to do the things the right way, which is the safe way.
It won’t happen to me
We’re all guilty at times of knowing what can go wrong but not really thinking it’ll happen to us. However, Guild’s claims experience tells us these incidents and injuries happen to anyone, including people just like you. Just because you may have cut corners with tasks in the past and nothing went wrong, doesn’t mean you’ll get away with it next time. Taking these risks just isn’t worth it, because it only takes one time where something goes wrong for a serious injury to occur.
Common workplace injury scenarios and prevention posters
- Childcare
- Early Learning
- Professional
- Accidents
- Duty of Care
- Falls
- Guild Insurance
- Injury/Injuries
- Practices
- Risks
- Trips
- Workplace Health & Safety (WHS)
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