Those doing working in dangerous environments will welcome a change shifting the onus of proof to ACC, but some industries may be more tentative.
Claiming ACC will become easier for employees injured by a work-related process, disease or infection.
The law changes, which will be introduced to Parliament later this year, reverse a 2010 law change and go further, in putting the onus of proof back on ACC to prove that a disease or infection is not work-related.
Firefighters and sawmill workers were among those to express concern that it was difficult to obtain cover, given the evidential requirements and burden of proof. This month, the support group Sawmill Workers Against Poisons told a community inquiry that the effects of hazardous chemicals were potent.
“Our lives were affected, children were affected because their health may be compromised in the future," said co-chair Kereama Akuhata.
The reason the three-step test was applied in 2010 was to reduce the number of claims, says ACC Minister Carmel Sepuloni in a Cabinet paper, published alongside the announcement. That means approved claims can now be expected to increase.
"Stakeholder concerns do highlight that the legislation lacks clarity and transparency on how ACC evaluates claims, and might discourage claimants from coming forward," Sepuloni told her fellow ministers.
The law will be changed so that ACC’s assessment of gradual process claims focuses on employment tasks and environments – that is, the causes of any illness – as distinct from specific occupations. The minister says this will provide greater transparency on how claimants’ exposures are considered, and better enable access to ACC for claimants.
It is part of a suite of changes, including requiring ACC take into account what someone earned before an injury when determining if they can return to work, lowering the threshold for injury-related hearing loss cover, some technical changes to better align ACC with the IRD, and the headline announcement that more childbirth injuries will now be covered – a change that is expected to help 17,000 to 18,000 women a year.
“This is an important change, the first of its kind, and one that aims to improve gender balance, fairness and equity in the ACC scheme, making support more accessible to those who need it." – Carmel Sepuloni, ACC Minister
This would improve the support available to birthing parents suffering childbirth injuries, Sepuloni said, and in particular provide more timely access to surgeries and to pelvic physiotherapy.
“This is an important change, the first of its kind, and one that aims to improve gender balance, fairness and equity in the ACC scheme, making support more accessible to those who need it," she said.
“We know that women make fewer claims than men, have fewer injuries covered by the scheme than men, and each woman’s claim costs the scheme a third less than a man’s on average in entitlements."
The ACC Futures Coalition, a group of health providers, lawyers and ACC consumers, is welcoming the changes to maternity and gradual workplace process cover.
Co-convenor Hazel Armstrong said claimants had faced problems with the three-step test for work-related gradual process, disease or infection cover. "Placing the burden of proof back on ACC to demonstrate that a disease or infection is not work related should be a great relief to many injured workers and we welcome it.”
