WorkCover's executive authority

RUSSELL EMMERSON
August 25, 2009

WORKCOVER'S sole claims management company is operating without a chief
executive - and must wait for Workcover to approve a replacement.

Former Employers Mutual SA chief executive, Anthony Fleetwood, is on
"extended leave", but the company must wait for Workcover, a government
corporation, to authorise his replacement - despite the company being responsible
for its own corporate actions.

State industrial relations minister Paul Caica said Workcover's contract with
Employers Mutual allowed the agency "some control" over the people
responsible for the company's South Australian operations.

"It's entirely fitting that the contract to provide these vitally important services
to SA's injured workers and business community has appropriate governance
arrangements in place," he said in a supplied statement.

Workcover chief executive Julia Davison would not agree to an interview but
said in a statement the agency played "an active role" in the company's
recruitment process and succession planning.

"Given that the contract is about providing a public service to injured workers
and employers on behalf of WorkCover, it is entirely appropriate for us to be
closely involved with the recruitment of senior personnel," she said.

Injured workers advocate Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson said the arrangement
showed there was something fundamentally wrong with the state's Workcover
system.

"It says the system itself is on shaky ground," she said.
"Without a chief executive heading up a vital part of that system, then there is
no direction. The ship is floating without a rudder."

Employers Mutual was appointed the sole claim agent for the Workcover system
in 2006 on an expectation it would save up to $100 million a year.

Those savings have not yet eventuated, and Workcover gave the company a
one-off $2 million payment last year to help it cope with legislative changes.

Employers Mutual did not return calls made by The Advertiser.