Lodging your Application for Compensation

If you have been injured at work because of your employers negligence, the first thing you should do is fill out an “Application for Compensation” and lodge it with WorkCover Queensland and give a copy to your employer. If your employer manages its own Workcover insurance, then lodge the Application with your employer’s own WorkCover insurer (Coles Myer and Woolworths are examples of employers who have their own WorkCover insurance).

As a housekeeping matter, the insurer will then investigate the circumstances of your claim to determine whether at the time of sustaining your injury:-

1. you were a “worker”; and

2. your work was the ‘significant contributing factor’ in causing your injury.

Once your claim is accepted, you should be given access to appropriate medical treatment and rehabilitation. You can also expect to be paid your wages (at a reduced rate) whilst you are absent from work and until a WorkCover doctor says you are fit to return to work (even if you feel you can’t return to work!).