The Department has provided comments prior to the recent workshop held in April 2023. After attending the April 2023 workshop, the Department through Compensation Fund identified fundamental issues that need to be resolved before providing additional comments.
In the recent document provided by DSD for comments it is apparent that the social security provided by The Compensation Fund is not fully understood e.g. the contributions are not paid from employees and are from employers with a risk based classification model. We therefore await further discussions because the paper does not fully cover the plight of injured workers considering the Compensation Fund is mandated to cover medical costs and ensure injured workers return to work
The may be further comments that the Department may wish to make, however we recommend that DSD hold another discussion where the fundamental issues that were raised at the April session are addressed
The department acknowledges the support for the Green paper and National Security Fund. The complex functions of one of our entities in having a risk based collection from employers and contributing to improved occupational health together with an integrated approach of providing medical care, return to work and temporary and long term benefits that aim to address the unique health and pension needs of the injured worker must be noted and these are aspects that must be considered.
As the Green Paper evolves and some of what the Department has raised in its comments, further input would then be depended on the nature of the new text.