Yes. A working holiday maker injured during paid employment can claim workers compensation through the state or territory scheme. It covers medical treatment, rehabilitation and a share of lost wages.
What does the scheme actually cover?
Any injury or illness arising out of, or in the course of, paid employment. That is broader than most people assume.
- Acute injuries such as cuts, breaks, sprains and burns
- Repetitive strain from ongoing work activity
- Mental health conditions caused or aggravated by work
- Diseases contracted because of the work, including skin conditions from chemical exposure
- Injuries during work related travel, and in some states travel to and from work
It is a no fault scheme, the point most often missed. The injury does not have to be anybody's fault, and it does not have to be the employer's. If it happened because of work, the claim stands.
What do the benefits amount to?
Medical treatment for the injury paid directly, weekly payments while you cannot work, travel to and from appointments, return to work support, and a lump sum where the injury results in lasting impairment.
Weekly payments typically run at 80% to 95% of your normal weekly wages, stepping down over time in some states, and continue while the injury affects your ability to work subject to state maximums. The scheme is state based, so the detail differs between New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the rest, and the state is where you work, not where the employer's head office is.
How does this interact with not having Medicare?
It replaces the question for the injury itself. Workers compensation is the primary payer for treatment of a work injury and you should not be billed for it, which matters for the majority of working holiday makers who are not entitled to Medicare.
A broken wrist from a fall at work is covered even for someone with no Medicare entitlement and no travel insurance in force. Our guide to Medicare for working holiday makers covers where the entitlement question sits.
What has to happen for a claim to run?
Four things, in order, and the first two are the ones people delay. Report the injury to the employer as soon as it happens, in writing if possible. See a doctor and get a workers compensation medical certificate, which is a specific certificate rather than an ordinary sick note.
The claim is then lodged with the employer's insurer, and the employer must pass it on within a short statutory period, commonly five working days. Continuing certificates are needed for any period you remain unable to work. An employer cannot lawfully refuse to lodge a claim, and refusing is itself a breach reportable to the state regulator.
What if you are threatened over it?
The threats are not real, and they are common enough to name. Working holiday makers report being told that a claim will get them sacked, deported or have their visa cancelled.
Dismissal because of a workers compensation claim is unlawful in every state. Making a claim is not a ground for visa cancellation, and an employer has no power over your visa status whatever they imply. If you are being pressured, the state regulator and the Fair Work Ombudsman are both available.
What if you were working under an ABN?
Then cover is not automatic, and this is the real gap. A genuine contractor is generally not covered by the principal's workers compensation insurance and is expected to arrange their own.
But many people on ABNs in hospitality and farm work are misclassified employees, and reclassification restores the cover along with award rates and superannuation. Set hours, supervision, employer supplied equipment and a single client are the indicators. Our guide to the employee versus contractor test sets out how it is decided, and it is worth resolving before assuming there is no claim.
What does an injury do to your tax year?
It usually lowers your income, which changes the arithmetic in your favour at assessment. A year with several unpaid or partly paid weeks is a year where withholding calculated on full time pay overshot, and that surfaces as a larger refund.
Compensation payments are treated differently depending on their nature, with weekly wage replacement generally assessable and lump sums for permanent impairment generally not. Getting that classification right matters.
What is payable, and for how long?
The entitlement is not the variable. What you receive and how straightforward it is depends on the facts below.
- Which state you were working in, since each runs its own scheme with its own rates and limits.
- Whether you were an employee or engaged under an ABN, and whether that classification was correct.
- Whether the injury was reported promptly and in writing.
- Whether you obtained a workers compensation medical certificate rather than an ordinary one.
- How long you were unable to work, which decides the weekly payments and the step downs.
- Whether the payments you received were wage replacement or impairment lump sums, which are treated differently at tax time.
A year interrupted by injury is reconciled in the working holiday tax return, and you can estimate your tax refund from what you actually earned.