Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2014: Crime on Work Breaks

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have warned that proposed amendments contained in the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 (Cth) could severely disadvantage the AFP as most of their daily work could be excluded from compensatory arrangements.

Background to the Bill

The Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (the Act) provides rehabilitation and workers’ arrangements for Australian Government and Australian Capital Territory employees, as well as employees of a small number of private corporations who hold a licence under the Act (licensees). The Act establishes the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission (the Commission) and Comcare as co-regulators of the Act. Comcare also has responsibility for regulation of the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act), which prescribes the work health and safety requirements for employers and employees covered by the Act. This combined work health and safety and workers’ compensation framework is referred to as the Comcare scheme.

In July 2012, the previous government announced the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act Review (the Review). The Bill will make amendments, following on from the review, that:

• remove the requirement for the Minister to declare a corporation to be eligible to be granted a licence for self-insurance; 
• enable a corporation currently required to meet worker’s compensation obligations under two or more worker’s compensation laws of a state or territory to apply to the Commission to join the Comcare scheme (the ‘national employer’ test); 
• allow a Commonwealth authority that ceases to be a Commonwealth authority to apply directly to the Commission for approval to be a self-insurer in the Comcare scheme and be granted a group licence if the former Commonwealth authority meets the national employer test;
• enable the Commission to grant group licences to related corporations; 
• extend the coverage provisions of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 to those corporations that obtain a licence to self-insure under the Act; and
• exclude access to workers’ compensation where: injuries occur during recess breaks away from an employer’s premises; or a person engages in serious and wilful misconduct, even if the injury results in death or serious and permanent impairment.

Reaction from the AFP

It is the final provision above which is causing problems with the AFP. The AFPA’s chief executive Dennis Gellatly has warned parliamentarians in a strongly-worded submission to the Senate that the “potential ramifications for police are severe”:

Mr Gellatly wants Federal police exempt from the changes, but it is understood the government will argue it is highly unlikely that police officers discharging their duties would be seen as ‘voluntarily and unreasonably submitting to an abnormal risk of injury’.

The Government is also expected to argue that an existing subsection of the Act covering employees who are temporarily absent from their place of work when undertaking an activity at the direction or request of the Commonwealth, would sufficiently protect AFP officers on the road.

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Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Amendment Bill 2014 as reproduced on TimeBase LawOne

AFP may be forced to ignore crime on work breaks due to a compensation law loophole