A review of Comcare's legislative framework says there is no choice but to redraft it, and warns AI, WFH and climate change "megatrends" all carry a risk of increasing psychological injury claims, while unions say workers compensation changes in NSW will cut support to those who are close to "catatonic" with such injuries.
The NSW IRC is today livestreaming the first day of a lengthy hearing to determine a work value claim on behalf of public hospital doctors seeking to bridge an alleged 30% pay gap, in what their union says is the biggest case in the tribunal's history.
The NSW Minns Labor Government has introduced what the Business Council claims is the "most interventionist AI and digital regulation" for employers in the country, while separately reviving a bid to lift the workers' compensation total impairment threshold for psychological injuries.
The NSW Parliament has passed stripped-back workers' compensation reforms following serious backlash over a Minns Government plan to increase the whole-person impairment threshold from 15% to 31% for employees suffering psychological injuries.
The NSW Industrial Court has fined the state's nurses and midwives union $130,000 for its "flagrant and unapologetic" flouting of multiple anti-strike orders during pay negotiations with the Minns Government that have since morphed into a major gender undervaluation case.
Psychiatrist staff specialists in NSW public hospitals have won a temporary 10% "stop-gap" attraction and retention allowance, after a State IRC full bench accepted they had established a special case to address an "acute shortage", partly a result of "comparatively low pay", that is driving a reduction in the quality of mental health care.
The NSW IRC last year received 36% more applications than in 2023, while cases finalised dropped by 16%, according to its latest annual report, which takes in the first six months of its renewed powers.
NSW IR Minister Sophie Cotsis says a Bill providing for the CFMEU State branch's mining and energy division and its manufacturing division to disamalgamate will guard against threats or "adverse conduct", while avoiding overlapping eligibility rules for at least a decade.
NSW firefighters have won a 14% pay rise over three years, with over-inflation increases to compensate for wages going backwards during the pandemic, and a 3% component to address undervalued skills.
