The state government recently announced changes to workers' compensation in Queensland that reject calls from the insurance and big business lobby to drastically reduce access by injured workers to common law remedies and instead seek to improve the financial performance of the scheme whilst more equally sharing the burden between workers and employers.

Workers' capacity to seek damages for work-related injuries will be retained but new measures will ensure that personal injury damages claims for work-related injuries will be subject to the same rules as other personal injury legal claims. The average premium rate for employers will increase from $1.15 per $100 of wages paid to $1.30 per $100 of wages paid in the next premium year – a level still below the average premium rate paid by employers in other states.

Other measures that form part of the scheme announced by the state government include:

•  auditing of unsafe employers with poor safety records
• investigating the introduction of a workers compensation levy system for the construction industry
• further review of return to work and rehabilitation measures
• increase in employer excess.

Under the original proposal by the WorkCover Board, workers found to have a work-related impairment as a result of their injury of less than 10% would be precluded from seeking compensation under common law. This threshold requirement would have reduced the number of injured workers eligible to receive damages by 66%. Additionally, the WorkCover Board proposed to increase the employer premium to $1.40 per $100 of wages paid – but only gradually, between now and 2017-18. QueenslandR17;s union members argued strongly against these proposals and instead advocating for a fairer system that focuses on minimising the hardship and loss suffered by workers through workplace injury and subsequently the costs of providing fair compensation.

Queensland has some of the best workers' compensation laws of any state or territory in Australia and by rejecting the original proposals the government has recognised the importance of common law remedies remaining an essential part of the system of workers' compensation in Queensland.