Workers compensation is a ‘no-fault’ system. The principle behind it is to compensate workers injured at…

Workers compensation is a ‘no-fault’ system. The principle behind it is to compensate workers injured at work, without liability having to be attributed to either employer or employee, except in cases of gross negligence. Where this gets tricky is infectious disease. /1

Most work injuries are traceable to the work you’re doing. If you’re a bricklayer and your back or your hands get damaged, it’s not rocket science to trace a link. But with (particularly airborne) infectious disease, you could theoretically catch it anywhere. /2

This creates a problem for workers compensation, because it becomes almost impossible to prove a person contracted the disease at work, even though many will. The sensible thing to do, as the Greens to their credit actually got up in NSW parliament,…/3… https://t.co/gDkdld3j8V

…is to recognise jobs where exposure to the infectious disease is very likely, and to capture that risk in the onus of proof for claims. Presumptive employment, as it’s called. The NSW Government has been trying ever since to have that presumptive clause removed. /4

Their view seems to be that if you can’t prove you caught Covid at work, then you will never be compensated for it by workers compensation. It reflects no risk assessment of the work itself, of probabilities. As with most conservative political reaction to the pandemic,…/5

…there is no focus on risk assessment. A low likelihood of dying becomes a reason to do nothing at all to prevent infection, ignoring the potential impact of infection, as any basic risk assessment would be required to do. This is all a flagrant breach of even the most basic…/6

…work practices we all follow every day. We need to do risk assessment even to take kids on an excursion, or to run a community event. But for a pandemic now, where the entire population is at risk, political leaders say let’s do wing and a prayer instead. /7

Where are the work regulators in this? The SafeWork type bodies? The unions? Why are so many seemingly surrendering to this hatchet job? Why is it not reported, wtf are our journalists DOING in this pandemic? Hundreds die every week and it’s not even considered newsworthy. /ends

@DavidShoebridge where is this now up to in NSW?