Couple furious at workers compensation system

Justice Reporter Emily Watkins From: Sunday Mail (SA) January 30, \
2011 12:00AM

SA road accident victim Greg Fatchen with wife Stephanie. Greg was left
a paraplegic in a car accident on the South Eastern Freeway in 2000.

Picture: Andrea Laube Source: Sunday Mail (SA)

A REVIEW just started into WorkCover could not come soon enough for
Greg and Stephanie Fatchen.

Mr Fatchen was left a paraplegic after he was injured in 2000 in a truck crash
while working in a tarmac-measuring vehicle for the Transport Department.

As the Sunday Mail reported last week, he and his wife Stephanie have spent
years fighting in the courts for compensation, but it incorrectly said the $1.5
million in third party insurance the court directed to be paid went to the couple.
In fact, it went straight to the Transport Department, as Mr Fatchen's "employer".

Mrs Fatchen said the state's workers compensation system was "insulting".
"The WorkCover system is very complex - the majority of people wouldn't
understand it," she said. "I don't think the general population understands
that a payout doesn't go to the person who has been injured."

Under the system, Mr Fatchen will remain an employee of the
Transport Department - even though he currently cannot work -
and receive 80 per cent of his wage until he is 65.

"But if he died tomorrow, we get nothing and the kids get nothing,"
Mrs Fatchen said.

She had to give up her job as a librarian after the accident; her husband
cannot drive and the couple have three children to support.

"WorkCover is not set up for the individual," Mrs Fatchen said. "It's set
up to protect the employer.

"Greg will never get back to work the way it was before the accident and
we just have to get by."

Mr Fatchen said the loss of earned income coupled with a meagre
$90,000 received in 2000 for the "permanent total and incurable paralysis
of the limbs" was "insulting".

WorkCover is currently the subject of a State Government review.
Submissions on the review have opened and a project team is expected
to present a report to Premier & Cabinet in four months.

Unions SA secretary Janet Giles said 2008 changes were unfair for injured
workers: "When people are injured at work, our job is to make sure they're
looked after in recovery.

"Sometimes the fight they have to have - to have their basic living costs
met - is more of a struggle than the injury itself."

watkinsem@sundaymail.com.au