Workers comp increase stuns printing companies

Printing Industries the peak industry body, is seeking NSW printing companies who were recently slugged with premium increases in order to lobby on their behalf.

“WorkCover’s handling of this issue has made it difficult for many companies,” said Philip Andersen, national director,Printing Industries

He said companies could usually estimate that portion that relate to factors such as wages bill and claims experience quite accurately and budget accordingly. But there was an additional ’F’ factor, which WorkCover has added to premiums to cover claims not directly associated with the company or the industry.

The ’F’ factor aims to equalise the cost of catastrophic claims and journey injury claims – where individuals claim for incidents off-site in transit to or from work – across all employers with basic premiums of over $3,000.

“The difficulty is that companies are able to estimate their wages for the coming year and they know the industry rate and what their own claims experience is but only have the previously gazetted ‘F’ factor rate to work with. This factor is re-assessed towards the end of the financial year to take account actual costs during the year,” said Andersen.

“Only last year this was increased from 3.45 per cent to 4.7 per cent and has now jumped to 5.5 per cent. In many cases the ‘F’ factor increase has been enough to wipe out any rebates companies may have been entitled to – thus eliminating any incentive to improve OHS standards.

“Companies therefore end up paying for the ‘F’ factor, which, unlike their own claims performance, is totally outside of their control. The nature of the ‘F’ factor means it is effectively a retrospective component, notified to companies well after they have completed their budgets.”

The current base premium rate for Printing and Services to Printing is 2.82 per cent. Newspaper printing is lower (1.87 per cent) as is prepress (1.39 per cent). Corrugated paperboard container manufacturing is 4.76 per cent. These are the industry factors. Individual company’s rates are then calculated by adjusting the industry figure by their own wages figures and claims experience figure.

According to Andersen companies estimate their base premium for the coming year based on these factors and should not be subjected to premium variances without adequate notice.

Printing Industries will by lobbying the NSW Government for changes to the current system and wants to hear from companies who have recently received their workers compensation premium notices.

Philip Andersen can be contacted on (02) 8789 7300 or by e-mail: Philip@printnet.com.au