CTU media release

23 February 2010

The CTU expressed support for the Government’s move today to change the title of the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act to the Accident Compensation Act.

“The change of name for the Act is a more honest reflection of what will be left of the ACC scheme once the Government is finished with it,” CTU President Helen Kelly said today.

“While a rose would smell as sweet with any other name, the cuts already made to the scheme by the Government along with the proposed changes in the Bill reduce services and shift costs to those that are injured and remove many of the provisions designed to support injury prevention and rehabilitation. The change to the name is the first time the Government has been prepared to acknowledge this and we welcome more transparency in this area.”

“Once this Bill is passed, and experience ratings and privatisation hit the scheme, employers will have many incentives to hide accidents and shift responsibility to the non work account. This will significantly reduce the injury prevention goals of the scheme. Once this Bill is passed rehabilitation services will also be dramatically reduced with people being forced off the scheme before they are fully rehabilitated and before they are fit enough to be able to return to a job at a similar level as the one in which they were before the injury.”

“We would like to propose an even more honest title and suggest that the word Compensation could also be removed from the title. The Bill significantly reduces earnings related compensation for, amongst others, seasonal workers and young people who are on the cusp of working but get injured before they start. It also excludes hearing loss injuries below 6 percent altogether.”