A proposed amendment to the Workers’ Compensation (Dust Disease) Act 1942 (The Dust Diseases Act) seeks to reinforce support to workers injured by work-related dust diseases.
On the 10th of August 2022, the NSW Government introduced an amendment bill to The Dust Diseases Act 1942, aptly titled the Workers’ Compensation (Dust Diseases) Amendment Bill 2022.
The goal of this amendment is to streamline benefit calculations to alleviate the administrative burden on injured workers and their families. The proposal aims to achieve this by removing anomalies in historical legislations that could have given rise to inconsistencies in calculating the benefits in the workers’ injury claim. This process removes ambiguity over injured worker entitlements and makes benefit calculations more straightforward without any technical obstacles. The passing of this bill would also mean all current benefit rates are protected from reductions.
This amendment is reinforced by the passing of the Workers’ Compensation (Dust Diseases) Amendment (Scheduled Diseases) Regulation 2022, where Schedule 1 list of diseases was expanded upon to include:
- Diffuse dust-related pulmonary fibrosis
- Hypersensitivity pneumonitis
- Pneumoconiosis (any form)
- Silica-induced carcinoma of the lung
- Systemic sclerosis
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Source: NSW Government
Title: Expanding the Dust Diseases Scheme and protecting worker entitlements
Time: 7 mins