Workers compensation

In line with the Safe and Well in Education Strategy, the department has enhanced supports to schools to assist them to promote safer, more efficient and sustainable return‑to‑work processes for injured employees. This includes the department’s Return to Work (RTW) and Compensation team providing:

early triage of new workers’ compensation claims to identify claims that may benefit from centralised support and guidance
enhanced systems to reduce the administrative burden of claims management
support to schools to identify suitable duties for injured employees to complete while they recover from their injuries
a new suite of workers’ compensation webinars to improve the capability of RTW coordinators and the management of work-related injuries.

Claims management

The number of standard claims increased from 773 in 2020–21 to 928 in 2021–22. This represented an increase per staff member from 1.06 claims per 100 FTE in 2020–21 to 1.25 claims per 100 FTE in 2021–22. This increase in part reflects the return to on-site work and learning in 2022.

The number of standard claims are comparable to pre-pandemic levels, which were 1.21 claims per 100 FTE in 2019–20.

Number of standard claims and rate per 100 FTE: 2019–20 to 2021–22

The number of lost time claims decreased from 458 in 2019–20 to 385 in 2021–22. This represented a decrease per staff member from 0.655 per 100 FTE in 2019–20 to 0.518 per 100 FTE in 2021–22.

Lost time claims and rate per 100 FTE: 2019–20 to 2021–22

The number of claims exceeding 13 weeks increased from 287 claims in 2019–20 to 299 claims in 2021–22. This represented a decrease per staff member from 0.41 claims per 100 FTE exceeding 13 weeks in 2019–20 to 0.40 claims per 100 FTE exceeding 13 weeks in 2021–22.

Claims exceeding 13 weeks and rate per 100 FTE: 2019–20 to 2021–22

The department’s workers compensation premium is a function of the premium rate as calculated by WorkSafe and the department’s remuneration. Further, the department’s premium rate is determined by adjusting the industry’s premium rate with the Employer Performance Rating (EPR). The EPR is a measure of the department’s claims cost relative to the industry’s claims costs.

The department’s premium increased from $97.7 million (excluding goods and services tax (GST)) in 2020–21 to $112.5 million (excluding GST) in 2021–22. This increase was the net effect of an increase in the department’s remuneration, and an increase in industry rate from 1.27% in 2020–21 to 1.32% in 2021–22. The increase in the department’s premium rate was driven by an increase in the industry’s premium rate from 1.41% in 2020–21 to 1.48% in 2021–22.

Premium rate: 2019–20 to 2021–22

The department’s EPR reflects the employer’s claims experience compared with employers across the industry. The EPR has increased from 1.114 in 2020–21 to 1.123 in 2021–22, but the rate of increase has slowed compared to 2019–20 to 2020–21, which marks an improvement.

Employer performance: 2019–20 to 2021–22

Performance against OHS and workers’ compensation management measures [1]

Measure	Key performance indicator	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22
Incidents	Number of incidents [2]	13,297	14,280	14,999
	Rate per 100 FTE	19.0	19.5	20.2
	Number of incidents requiring first aid and/or medical treatment [3]	5,190	4,886	Not available
Hazards	Total number of hazards reported	1,105	1,354	1,129
	Rate per 100 FTE	1.6	1.9	1.3
Claims	Number of standard claims	843	773	928
	Rate per 100 FTE	1.2	1.1	1.3
	Number of lost time claims	458	377	385
	Rate per 100 FTE	0.7	0.5	0.5
	Number of claims exceeding 13 weeks	287	212	299
	Rate per 100 FTE	0.4	0.3	0.4
Fatalities	Fatality claims	–	–	–
Claim costs	Average cost per standard claim ($)	96,182	120,885	149,507
RTW [4]	Percentage of claims with RTW plan < 30 days	–	–	–
OHSMS development and implementation/ review and improvement	Number of policies, procedures, guidelines and templates reviewed and/or updated	58	150	173
	School audits completed [5]	325	47	26
	Average OHSMS audit score (schools) [6]	80	87	82
	Percentage of corrective actions completed—incident reports	55	57	55
Management commitment	Evidence of OHS policy statement, objectives, regular reporting to senior management and plans (signed by CEO or equivalent)	Complete	Complete	Complete
	Evidence of OHS criteria in purchasing guidelines (including goods, services and personnel)	Complete	Complete	Complete
	Management engagement in audits [7]	–	–	–
	Senior management commitment—OHSMS review [8]	Yes	Yes	Yes
Consultation and participation	Evidence of agreed structure of designated workgroups, health and safety representatives, and issue resolution procedures	Complete	Complete	Complete
	Percentage of schools reported to have health and safety representatives and OHS committees, based on audit results	63	64	46
	Senior management involvement in consultation and communication [9]	–	–	–
	Compliance with agreed structure of above	Completed	Completed	Completed
Risk management	Percentage of internal audits/inspections conducted as planned	79	62	90
	Percentage of reported incidents investigated [10]	55	57	55
	Number of improvement notices issued by WorkSafe inspector [11]	98	56	68
	Percentage of issues actioned as part of the total issues identified in:
	internal audits	50	6	32
	health and safety representatives provisional improvement notices [12]	–	–	–
	WorkSafe notices	100	100	100
Training	Percentage of managers and staff who have received OHS training:
	induction	79	77	64
	management training (OHS for principals)	74	71	73
	contractors and temporary staff [13]	–	–	–
	Percentage of health and safety representatives trained [14]:
	acceptance of role (initial training)	68	77	73
	retraining (annual refresher)	51	70	73
	Total number of mental health training sessions	73	13 people managers and human resources staff 8 executives	8 (mental health webinars)
Absenteeism	Total number of days of absence due to injury or illness	628,411	627,543	679,070
	Rate per 100 FTE	898	857	913
People Matter survey results	Response rate (%)	49	71	71
	Percentage of respondents who think the department provides a safe work environment	–	86	65
Prosecutions	Total number of prosecutions	–	–	–
Mental health and wellbeing	Mental health audit [15]	–	–	92
	Calendar of mental health and wellbeing activities [16]	Yes	Yes	Yes

[1] The department’s OHS and workers compensation measures are inclusive of the VSA. Data is sourced from the Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA).

[2] The increase to the ‘Number of incidents’ in recent years can be attributed to fewer periods of remote learning. In the pre-pandemic reporting period of 2018–19, the number of incidents was 14,923. Additionally, a new version of EduSafe Plus was released in 2021–22. This coincided with a number of hazard and incident reporting awareness and promotional activities, including direct communications with all staff and training webinars.

[3] As a result of a major system upgrade and design change, the department is unable to provide this figure due to changes in the way information is captured and stored in the system’s database.

[4] The department is unable to report on this indicator because RTW plans are developed locally and their data is not collected centrally. The department is improving processes required to report on this measure as part of the EduSafe Plus Project.

[5] The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continued to limit the ability to conduct audits in the reporting period. The OHS Assurance Program (previously known as the OHS Audit Program) undertook a series of improvements. The new program was launched as an opt-in pilot in Terms 1 and 2, 2022.

[6] The results of the new Assurance Program in 2021–22 are not directly comparable to prior results within the OHS Audit Program.

[7] School principals engage with OHS auditors to lead corrective action. Currently, data is not collected centrally for the department to report on this measure. The department will consider how this measure will be reported.

[8] Senior management reviews the OHSMS, its performance and relevant development actions.

[9] Senior executives, executives, principals and management OHS nominees attend periodic OHS committees. Currently, the data needed to determine the percentage of participation is not captured centrally.

[10] Refers to percentage of reported incidents investigated by WorkSafe.

[11] Improvement notices for the purposes of this report include prohibition notices, non-disturbances notices, and other notices issued by WorkSafe Victoria.

[12] The department is unable to report on this indicator because data relating to provisional improvement notices are not collected centrally. The department will determine the processes needed to report on this indicator as part of its Employee Wellbeing and Operational Policy Reforms.

[13] Currently, the department does not maintain contractor training records centrally to be able to report on this measure.

[14] The updated checklist now only asks a single question relating to both the initial training and the refresher, therefore the data for ‘acceptance of role (initial training)’ and retraining ‘annual refresher’ is identical.

[15] The new OHS Assurance Program includes assessment of compliance against the Employee Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy. A pilot to provide additional support is ongoing.

[16] Mental health and wellbeing activities have been organised centrally.

Updated 21 September 2022