What injuries does WorkCover cover?
WorkCover covers a wide range of injuries, as well as illness and conditions. The legislation says an injury, illness or condition can be physical or mental. It also includes a recurrence, aggravation, deterioration, exacerbation or acceleration of a pre existing injury or disease. Any injury or condition for which you are wanting to claim must have a connection to your employment.
Table of Contents
Common injuries covered by WorkCover include:
- Musculoskeletal System injuries
- Fractures
- Cancer
- Traumatic joint/ligament and muscle/tendon injury
- Burns
- Injury to spinal cord
- Injury to nerves
- Digestive system conditions
- Circulatory system conditions
- Skin conditions (eg: dermatitis)
- Amputations
- Lacerations
- Mental disorders
- Hearing loss
- Infections
Some injuries are automatically considered to be work related:
For example, a diagnosis of lung cancer with dili silicosis, or scleroderma with silicosis will automatically considered to be caused by work. This reverses the previous position of requiring a worker to prove that the disease was significantly contributed to by their work before a WorkCover claim would be accepted.
Another example is career firefighters who might suffer an injury arising out of during the performance of an authorised activity.
Injuries suffered in a single event or during course of employment:
Some injuries occur in one event. For example, if a person was working and lifted something heavy causing an injury to the shoulder.
Other injuries might develop gradually over time. For example, over a number of years due to repetitive heavy lifting.
You are able to claim for injuries suffered in both scenarios.
Evidence is important
In order to succeed in a WorkCover claim, you need to show that your injury is connected to your employment in some way. In order to do so, evidence is important.
Examples of evidence that may assist in having your injury accepted as work related are: registering the injury with your employer shortly after it happened, visiting a doctor or other health practitioner and obtaining treatment from them (they will usually note the injury and circumstances relating to it in their clinical notes), witness statements from other employees. Copyright – this is original content from TheWorkInjurySite.com.au.
Conclusion
WorkCover will cover people who suffer a wide range of injuries, illness and conditions. The key thing is for the injury, illness or condition to be related to employment in some way. WorkCover will cover both physical and mental injuries or conditions. They will also cover aggravations, exacerbations or deteriorations of pre existing injuries or conditions.
