SIGNIFICANT UPCOMING CHANGES TO WORKERS COMPENSATION CLAIMS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL INJURIES

On Friday the Minns Government released the exposure draft of the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 .

The bill sets the work of mental health campaigners back by decades and severely discriminates against workers with psychological or psychiatric injuries.

The effect of the bill as drafted is:

1. No worker will receive weekly payments of compensation for psychological injury after a maximum of 2.5 years.

2. No worker will receive support with medical or related treatment expenses after a maximum of 3.5 years.

3. No worker will receive lump sum compensation.

4. No worker will be eligible to claim work injury damages even when their injury has been caused by the fault of their employer.

At this stage, the only workers who are exempt from these changes are those assessed with at least 31% whole person impairment (WPI). This threshold is a unicorn, it does not exist. Either workers are so severely disabled they require institutional care and are assessed with upwards of 50% WPI or they are below 30%. Click here for a comparative table of the psychiatric impairment ratings.

The bill also further limits psychological injury claims depending on the cause of injury:

1. No compensation is payable unless the psychological injury was caused by a "relevant event", including:

* being subjected to an act of violence or a threat of violence

* being subjected to indictable criminal conduct

* witnessing an incident that leads to death or serious injury, or the threat

of death or serious injury, including the following—

(i) an act of violence,

(ii) indictable criminal conduct,

(iii) a motor accident, a natural disaster, a fire or another accident,

* experiencing vicarious trauma as defined

* sexual harassment, racial harassment or bullying, but only if a tribunal, commission or court has found the conduct was harassment or bullying.

2. Injuries caused by excessive workloads and other work stressors will be limited to compensation for medical expenses for 8 weeks, with no other compensation payable.

There will no doubt be workers whose cause of injury falls outside the definition of "relevant event", although there is a provision for additional relevant events to be prescribed by regulation.

At this stage the Government has not announced if or how these changes will affect people with existing claims.

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