SIRA sets up team of inspectors

The New South Wales (NSW) State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) has launched a team of inspectors to improve employer compliance with injury management and return-to-work obligations.

The inspectors will target employers in NSW through compliance, enforcement, and advisory efforts to ensure they meet their obligations to support workers in recovery or returning to work after an injury. Specifically, they will educate employers on supporting workers returning to work after an injury and issuing improvement and penalty notices if their practices are not up to standard.

SIRA chief executive Adam Dent said the inspectors will target employers based on workers’ compensation claims data and complaints.

“An inspector may visit a workplace for a variety of reasons, including if there’s a current or recent workers’ compensation claim, if SIRA identifies that a worker has a higher risk of a poor return-to-work outcome, or if SIRA has information that the employer may not be meeting its obligations,” Dent said. “We’re committed to doing what we can to promote and enforce compliance with the practices that we know underpin positive return-to-work outcomes.”

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SIRA inspectors have special powers to enter workplaces and issue on-the-spot fines and improvement notices where workers’ compensation obligations are unmet. Non-compliance with improvement notices leaves SIRA no choice but to take enforcement action, leading to significant fines.

“Employers have a substantial impact on a worker’s recovery, so our focus is on stamping out bad practices that can lead to a delayed recovery,” Dent said.

Establishing a SIRA inspectorate is one of the 10 actions the regulator prioritises in its return-to-work action plan to address poor return-to-work performance in the NSW workers’ compensation scheme. Other actions include implementing a return-to-work Standard of Practice, partnering with the Black Dog Institute to help people with psychological injury return to work, and establishing a service that makes outbound calls to workers at risk of delayed recovery.