WorkSafe scheme slides into the red

 Picture: Andy Drewitt Source: HWT Image Library

TWO of Melbourne's biggest law firms have launched a stinging attack
on the State Government for "pinching" funds from WorkSafe after the
scheme slumped into the red. 
  
Slater & Gordon and Maurice Blackburn criticised the Government after
it emerged that the workers' compensation scheme had suffered a $641 million
loss in the six months to December

The Baillieu Government is taking a $471 million "dividend" from the
compensation scheme, with the funds to be withdrawn over four years.

The law firms said that the steep loss chalked up by WorkSafe showed
the funds should not be withdrawn.

WorkSafe has blamed "sluggish investment markets and reductions in
interest rates" for the loss.

Slater & Gordon worker's compensation lawyer Marcus Fogarty said:
"In uncertain economic times, it is staggering that the Government would seek
to jeopardise the scheme by pinching nearly half a billion dollars from WorkSafe".

He said business did not pay WorkCover premiums "so the Government can
siphon nearly half a billion from the scheme to balance its books."

Maurice Blackburn workplace law expert John Cain labelled the dividend a "
back door tax" and a sign of "misguided priorities".

Assistant Treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips said Slater & Gordon was
"scaremongering" and that the government's decision would have "no bearing"
on entitlements paid under the accident compensation scheme or premium levels.

"The Government will continue to strive to ensure workplace safety is not
compromised, without imposing an unaffordable burden on Victorian business,"
Mr Rich-Phillips said.