Do we have to report an injury if we do not think it is work-related?

In most schemes, yes. WorkSafe Queensland is explicit that employers must report an injury to the insurer even if the worker does not make a claim and even if the employer does not agree the injury is compensable. WorkCover WA is equally direct: give the claim to your insurer even if you disagree with what has been claimed or you have spotted an error on the form. Deciding whether the injury is compensable is the insurer's job, not yours.

Can we tell an injured worker which doctor to see?

No. In NSW the worker nominates their treating doctor, normally their own GP, and where the injury prevents them doing their normal job for seven days or more the law requires them to nominate one. In Queensland, employers must advise the worker of their right to access their choice of medical or other treatment provider. You can offer access to a service and explain what it does. You cannot make the choice for the worker.

Do we need a return-to-work coordinator?

It depends on the state and on your size. South Australia requires one at 30 or more workers employed for a continuous period of three or more months. Tasmania requires one above 100 workers. The ACT requires one for self-insurers and employers with an annual premium of $200,000 or more. NSW ties it to Category 1 status, Victoria to rateable remuneration, and Queensland to a wages multiple of Queensland ordinary time earnings. The Northern Territory has no requirement at all. The thresholds are set out with sources in the coordinator section above.

The certificate says the worker has some capacity. What do we do with it?

Turn the restrictions into named tasks. A certificate describes capacity and limitations, not a job. In Victoria the medical practitioner completes the certificate based on what the worker can do at work, and the employer must start planning for return to work as soon as they receive the claim or the certificate, whichever comes first. Write down the specific tasks on offer, the hours, who supervises, and a review date that lines up with the end of the certified period.

What is different about a psychological injury claim?

The rules, the paperwork and the timeframes. In Victoria, if the claim includes a mental injury the employer must submit Part A of the claim form to their agent within 3 business days rather than 10 calendar days. In NSW, primary psychological injuries first notified on or after 1 July 2026 are only compensable where they were caused by a defined relevant event, and the person making the notification has to identify at least one of those events. Certificates also carry more weight: WorkSafe Victoria asks that the certificate state a diagnosis using the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Can we use the medical documents in a performance or disciplinary process?

No. In Queensland it is an offence to use workers' compensation documents for any purpose relating to employment, including disciplinary action or decisions about whether employment should continue, and WorkSafe Queensland advises keeping rehabilitation records separate from employment records. Treat that as the standard everywhere: the certificate exists to plan recovery and work, not to build a file.

Do you decide whether a claim is accepted?

No. We assess, treat, and document. The insurer decides liability, and the regulator sets the rules the insurer applies. We do not determine liability, provide legal advice, or guarantee any claim outcome, and nothing on this page is legal advice for your particular matter.

The employer's guide to workplace injury management in Australia

Someone gets hurt at work. From that moment you are running two clocks at once — one to the safety regulator, one to your workers' compensation insurer — and the paperwork that follows is written in eight slightly different dialects, depending on which state the worker was standing in. This guide sets out what has to happen, when, and where the rules genuinely differ.

Written for HR, work health and safety, and operations teams. Every scheme fact below links to the regulator that publishes it. Reviewed 21 August 2026 — thresholds and timeframes change, so check the linked source before you rely on one.

At a glance

The obligations that catch employers out

Serious incident: Notify the WHS regulator immediately
Tell your insurer: 48 hours to 10 days, by state
Who chooses the doctor: The worker
Certificate names: Four different ones
Return-to-work coordinator: Threshold varies by state
Psychological claims: Separate rules and clocks

We provide clinical assessment, treatment and documentation. We do not determine liability, give legal advice, or guarantee claim outcomes.

What injury management actually means (and how it differs from WHS)

Work health and safety is about preventing harm. Injury management is what happens after someone has been harmed anyway. They are governed by different legislation, they often answer to different bodies, and they run on completely different deadlines — which is why an employer can do the safety response perfectly and still be late on the claim.

The safety side comes first and moves fastest. Under the model work health and safety laws, a person conducting a business or undertaking must notify their WHS regulator immediately after becoming aware of a workplace death, a serious work-related injury or illness, or a dangerous incident. In NSW that means calling SafeWork NSW, while the claim goes to a different organisation entirely — SIRA sets out both steps side by side, and notes the incident site may need to be preserved until an inspector attends.

Those notification duties are also in the middle of changing. Safe Work Australia published amendments to the model WHS Act in December 2025 that extend notification to dangerous incidents involving mobile plant and falls, violent incidents including sexual assault, work-related suicide and attempted suicide, and worker absences of 15 or more consecutive calendar days. Those changes only take legal effect once each jurisdiction adopts them into its own laws, and every jurisdiction sets its own timeline — so check with your regulator before you change your reporting practices.

Injury management is the second track: notify the insurer, get the worker into care, obtain a certificate, work out what the person can safely do, and build a plan to get them back to it. That is the track this guide covers, and it is where most of the avoidable cost sits.

The first 48 hours after an injury is reported

In several states the whole notification window is 48 hours, so this is not a leisurely checklist. It is roughly a day and a half of work, most of which can be done in the first hour.

Make the situation safe and get the person to care. Everything else on this list is administrative. This is not.
Notify the WHS regulator if the incident is notifiable. Immediately, by the fastest means available, and preserve the site if an inspector may attend (Safe Work Australia). In Victoria you also send a completed incident notification form to WorkSafe within 48 hours and keep a copy for five years.
Enter it in the register of injuries. Whether or not a claim is ever made. In NSW the register is mandatory and each entry must record the worker's name, address, age, occupation and industry, and the time, date, nature and cause of the injury — with penalties for failing to keep one. The ACT register must also record the name and address of the treating doctor.
Tell your insurer. The deadline depends on your state — see the next section. Do not wait until you have decided whether you think the claim is genuine.
Give the worker a claim form and tell them their rights. In Tasmania you must give the worker a Notice of Right to Make a Workers Compensation Claim within 14 days of them telling you about the injury, and must not prevent or hinder access to a claim form. In Queensland you advise the worker of their right to lodge a claim and of their right to access their choice of treatment provider.
Start return-to-work planning now, not after liability. Victorian employers must start planning as soon as they receive the claim or the certificate of capacity, whichever happens first. Waiting for an acceptance letter costs weeks you cannot recover.
Name one internal contact and tell the worker who it is. Most of the communication failures in a claim trace back to nobody owning the conversation.

If the injury needs a clinical response rather than just paperwork, claims triage and our referral process set out what we need from you to start.

Notification obligations, state by state

These are the deadlines for telling your workers' compensation insurer. They are separate from, and usually much longer than, your duty to notify the safety regulator of a serious incident.

New South Wales — 48 hours: You must tell your insurer within 48 hours of being made aware of the injury. SIRA calls this the initial notification. Serious or dangerous incidents go to SafeWork NSW immediately and separately.
Victoria — 10 calendar days, or 3 business days for mental injury: You submit the claim documents to your WorkSafe agent within 10 calendar days of receiving the claim form from the worker. If the claim includes a mental injury, Part A goes to the agent within 3 business days. Penalties apply for missing these. Your agent then has 28 calendar days to assess the claim.
Queensland — 8 business days: You must report an injury to your insurer as soon as possible, and no more than eight business days after becoming aware of it. It is an offence not to report within that time without a reasonable excuse, under sections 133 and 133A of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003. Reporting is not the same as making a claim.
Western Australia — 7 days: You must give the claim to your insurer within 7 days, with a penalty of up to $25,000. Giving it to a third party such as an insurance broker is not considered giving it to your insurer, and you must pass it on even if you disagree with the claim or see an error on the form.
South Australia — as soon as possible, with a five-day incentive: ReturnToWorkSA asks employers to call their claims agent as soon as possible, and adds a direct financial reason to move quickly: if you make a claim within five business days of being notified by the worker that they want to submit it, you may be eligible for a waiver of the employer excess.
Tasmania — 3 working days, then 5: You must tell your insurer about the claim within 3 working days, and send the completed claim form and the certificate of capacity to your insurer within 5 working days of receiving them from the worker.
Northern Territory — 3 working days: Complete the employer part of the claim form and forward it to the insurer within three working days of receiving it from the worker, together with the first medical certificate of capacity.
Australian Capital Territory — 48 hours, then 7 days: Notify the insurer within 48 hours of being made aware of the injury, and forward the worker's claim form within seven days of receiving it. If you do not give notice within 48 hours you are directly liable for weekly compensation from the end of the notification time until notice is given, and cannot be reimbursed by the insurer. That is the sharpest penalty for lateness in any Australian scheme.

Our state and territory pages cover each scheme in more detail, including the regulator and insurer you will be dealing with.

The treating doctor relationship: what you can and cannot do

This is the most misunderstood part of injury management, and it is misunderstood in both directions: employers assume they have no role at all, or assume they can send the worker to a doctor of their choosing. Neither is right.

The choice belongs to the worker. In NSW the nominated treating doctor is the medical practitioner the worker nominates, normally their own GP, and the law requires a worker to nominate one where the injury prevents them doing their normal job for seven days or more. The worker authorises the flow of information to the employer and insurer by signing the certificate of capacity. In Queensland, employers must advise the worker of their right to access their choice of medical or other treatment provider.

What you can legitimately do is give that doctor something useful to work with. A written description of the job — actual tasks, weights, hours, shift pattern — and a list of the duties genuinely available changes what a certificate can say. You can also ask for a case conference, but understand what it is: SIRA treats case conferences as separate from medical consultations unless the worker and their nominated treating doctor agree otherwise. In Tasmania, you have the right to discuss the worker's injury and return to work with their treating doctor provided the worker has signed the consent and authority in the claim form.

What you cannot do is attend the consultation uninvited — SIRA is clear that an employer or their representative may only attend a worker's medical appointment if the worker requests it — or use the resulting documents for anything other than recovery. If a worker wants to change doctors, they must inform the insurer or employer, and where there is evidence the current management is not supporting a safe return to work the insurer may ask a doctor experienced in workplace rehabilitation to review the case.

Where a worker nominates us, we act as the treating doctor. Where they already have one, we work alongside them — that is what case management is for. We do not displace a worker's choice of doctor.

Certificates and work capacity: what you get and what to do with it

The document has a different name depending on where you are. Victoria, Tasmania and NSW use a certificate of capacity. Queensland uses a work capacity certificate. The Northern Territory uses a medical certificate of capacity. The job is the same in each: describe the injury, the treatment, and what the person can safely do.

The rules about who can issue one, and for how long, are worth knowing. In Victoria, only a medical practitioner can issue the first certificate of capacity — a psychologist is not a medical practitioner — and it is valid for a maximum of 14 days unless special reasons exist. Subsequent certificates are valid for a maximum of 28 days and can be issued by a medical practitioner, physiotherapist, chiropractor or osteopath. That 14-day first window is a useful planning fact: your first review conversation is due sooner than most employers expect.

Read the certificate for capacity, not for diagnosis. The clinically interesting part is the list of things the person can still do. In Victoria the practitioner completes the certificate based on what the worker can do at work, and can certify capacity regardless of whether suitable employment is actually available— which means a certificate showing capacity is not a statement that you have a job ready. That part is yours.

When the certificate changes, the plan has to change with it. In WA that is explicit: an amendment to the return to work program is required if the worker's treating medical practitioner amends a certificate of capacity or modifies the restrictions in writing, and copies of the amended program must go to the worker and their treating medical practitioner.

We cover how to read one of these forms line by line — diagnosis, capacity, restrictions, and what to do when you disagree with it — on our certificates of capacity page.

Building suitable duties and a return-to-work plan

Offering suitable duties is an obligation, not a courtesy, and in most schemes you have to explain yourself if you cannot. In Queensland, all employers must offer workplace rehabilitation and take all reasonable steps to assist or provide the worker with rehabilitation under section 228 of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 — and if you cannot provide suitable duties you must give your insurer written notice detailing why, with supporting evidence.

Western Australia sets the clearest trigger. A return to work program must be established as soon as practicable after the earliest of: the treating medical practitioner issuing a certificate of capacity saying the worker is partially incapacitated; the practitioner advising in writing that a program should be established; or an arbitrator determining, or the parties agreeing, that a compensable injury has caused partial incapacity. The program must be in the approved form, the worker must be given an opportunity to participate in building it, and you must provide the pre-injury position if reasonably practicable, or a comparable suitable position, for a 12-month period from the day the worker becomes incapacitated.

Elsewhere the triggers differ but the direction is the same. The Northern Territory requires a written proposal for a return to work plan within seven days after becoming aware that total or partial incapacity is likely to exceed 28 days. NSW frames the whole scheme around recovery through work: identifying suitable tasks that align with current capacity, adjusting hours or days, and maintaining regular contact.

A plan that works names things: not “light duties” but the specific tasks, the hours, the maximum weight, who supervises, and a review date matching the end of the certified period. Plans that fail are almost always plans written in adjectives. And if your operation genuinely has no task within the restrictions, say so to the insurer in writing rather than improvising something demeaning — sweeping a yard that does not need sweeping teaches a worker that returning is a punishment.

Duties look different in a warehouse than in a hospital or on a mine site. Our industry pages cover the job demands we most often plan around.

Return-to-work coordinators: who actually needs one

Every state answers this differently, and the thresholds are measured in different units — headcount in one place, premium in another, wages in a third. Operate across borders and you may need a coordinator in one state and not in the next.

New South Wales: Category 1 employers must appoint a return-to-work coordinator. A Category 1 employer is one with a basic tariff premium over $50,000 a year, or which is self-insured, or which is insured by a specialised insurer and has over 20 employees. Separately, all NSW employers must have a return-to-work program within 12 months of becoming a Category 1 or Category 2 employer, developed in consultation with workers and any representing union, and reviewed at least every 2 years. icare publishes a guide for employers on what that program has to contain.
Victoria: Employers with rateable remuneration of $3,059,120 (indexed annually) or more must have an appointed return-to-work coordinator at all times. Employers below that figure must appoint one for the duration of their obligation to a worker with an incapacity for work. In both cases the coordinator must have appropriate seniority and be competent to perform the role.
Queensland: You must appoint a rehabilitation and return to work coordinator, and have workplace rehabilitation policies and procedures, if your annual Queensland wages are 5,200 times Queensland full-time adult ordinary time earnings (QOTE) for the preceding financial year — or 2,600 times QOTE if you are in a high risk industry. The coordinator must be based in Queensland, employed under a contract, and skilled, experienced or trained for the role. Because the threshold is a QOTE multiple rather than a fixed figure, it moves every year.
Western Australia: WA takes a different route. There is no headcount threshold for a coordinator; instead every employer must have an injury management system in place and available to their workers, with a penalty of up to $25,000. WorkCover WA's guidance to employers is to disclose that injury management system to the injured worker, along with who is nominated as the injury management coordinator.
South Australia: Appoint a return-to-work coordinator in the workplace if you employ 30 or more workers for a continuous period of three or more months, and ensure that coordinator has completed the mandatory training course required by ReturnToWorkSA. The continuous-period wording matters for seasonal and project-based employers.
Tasmania: Section 143D of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 requires employers with more than 100 workers to appoint a return-to-work co-ordinator, and where an injured worker has suffered a significant injury — likely to be totally or partially incapacitated for more than 5 working days — the employer must assign them to that co-ordinator.
Australian Capital Territory: All self-insurers and employers with an annual premium of $200,000 or more must appoint a suitably qualified or experienced return-to-work coordinator. WorkSafe ACT inspectors check for this on workplace visits, along with a displayed return-to-work program and a register of injuries.
Northern Territory: There is no requirement under Northern Territory legislation to have a return-to-work coordinator, though NT WorkSafe encourages employers to make available coordinators who act as a liaison between the injured worker, management, treating doctors, vocational providers and insurers. The underlying duty to take reasonable steps to provide suitable employment still applies.

Psychological injury claims: what is different

These claims behave differently from a shoulder or a back, and the gap is not small. Safe Work Australia's Key Work Health and Safety Statistics Australia 2025 reports that mental health conditions accounted for 12.0% of serious claims in 2023–24p, with a median time lost of 35.7 working weeks against 7.4 weeks across all serious claims, and median compensation paid of $67,400 against $16,300. A psychological claim that drifts does not drift for a fortnight.

The paperwork moves faster, too. In Victoria, a claim that includes a mental injury requires Part A to go to your agent within 3 business days rather than 10 calendar days, and your agent will tell you within 2 business days of receiving it whether the worker is entitled to provisional payments. That is a deadline most employers only discover once they have missed it.

New South Wales has rewritten this area outright. For primary psychological injuries first notified to the employer on or after 1 July 2026, compensation is payable only where the injury was caused by a defined “relevant event” — a list that includes violence or threats of violence, indictable criminal conduct, witnessing a traumatic incident, vicarious trauma, bullying, sexual harassment, racial harassment and excessive work demands — and the person making the 48-hour notification must identify at least one of them. Claims arising from bullying, harassment or excessive work demands follow a separate pathway, in which the insurer has 42 days to accept or dispute liability, and if it does not decide within that period the claim is taken to have been accepted. An injury is not compensable where the predominant significant cause was reasonable management action taken in a reasonable way. Exempt workers such as police, paramedics and firefighters, coal miners, volunteers and dust disease claims sit outside these changes, as do secondary psychological injuries.

Practically, three things change on your side. The certificate needs to name a disorder rather than describe stress — WorkSafe Victoria asks for a diagnosis using the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and a statement on whether the injury has caused significant behavioural, cognitive or psychological dysfunction. Return-to-work planning may need to address reporting lines and team contact, not just physical tasks. And your own records matter more, because a NSW insurer deciding one of these claims must consider relevant information held by the employer, including reports made to the employer, a union, NSW Police, SafeWork NSW or the Fair Work Commission.

We assess and treat. Whether particular conduct amounted to reasonable management action is a decision for the insurer, and ultimately for a tribunal — not for a treating practice, and not for us.

Common mistakes that make claims run long

Safe Work Australia's 2022–23 data show that claims involving more than 13 weeks off work were 21.9% of total claims but 74.8% of total compensation payments, or $5.4 billion. Almost everything expensive about a claim happens after the first three months. The mistakes below are the ones that get a claim there.

Waiting for liability before doing anything. Reporting and rehabilitation obligations do not wait for an acceptance letter, and both Queensland and Western Australia require you to pass the injury or claim on even when you disagree with it.
Treating the certificate as a diagnosis rather than a capacity document. The restrictions are the operational content. The diagnosis rarely is.
Offering “light duties” that do not exist. An unnamed, unsupervised, invented task is not suitable employment, and workers read it correctly as a holding pattern.
Going quiet. Silence from an employer is the single most reliable predictor of a claim that becomes adversarial. Regular, ordinary contact costs nothing.
Using claim documents in an employment process. In Queensland it is an offence to use workers' compensation documents for any purpose relating to employment, including disciplinary action or decisions about whether employment should continue. Keep rehabilitation records in a separate system from employment records.
Ending employment too early. Queensland prohibits dismissing an injured worker within 12 months of the injury solely or mainly because they are not fit for the position. The Northern Territory bars dismissal for six months following the date of injury unless the worker ceases to be incapacitated, with a serious and wilful misconduct exception. Tasmania requires you to keep the worker's original position available for 12 months following a claim.
Forgetting the second clock. Notifying your insurer is not notifying the safety regulator, and the safety notification is the one measured in minutes.

When to escalate and get specialist clinical input

Most claims resolve on their own. The ones that do not tend to send the same signals, and they send them early enough to act on:

Two or more consecutive certificates with no change in stated capacity.
A certificate that says “unfit” with no treatment plan, no review date, and no reference to the worker's actual job.
A diagnosis that has shifted more than once, or symptoms that do not match the mechanism of injury.
Three or more providers involved with no one coordinating between them.
A physical injury developing a psychological overlay — sleep, mood, avoidance of the workplace.
Recovery blocked by a queue: imaging, a specialist appointment, or a surgical opinion that is weeks away.
Restrictions that your operation genuinely cannot accommodate, where the answer is redeployment planning rather than waiting.

There is a formal escalation route inside the schemes too. In NSW, insurers must develop an injury management plan within 20 working days of identifying an injury as likely to be a significant injury, in consultation with the worker, the nominated treating doctor and the employer. If you are well past that point and no injury management plan exists, ask the insurer for one. Where the treating relationship is the obstacle, the insurer can ask a doctor experienced in workplace rehabilitation to review how the injury is being managed.

That is the point at which independent clinical input helps. We aim for same-day or next-business-day triage where clinically appropriate and capacity allows. From there we assess, document capacity against the real demands of the role, and coordinate treatment — by video where distance or rosters make attendance impractical, and with fast-tracked specialist referrals where a queue is the blockage.

To be explicit about the boundary: we provide clinical assessment, treatment and documentation. We do not determine liability, act as legal advisers, or guarantee a claim outcome. This guide is general information about scheme obligations, not advice on your particular matter — for that, speak to your insurer, your regulator, or a lawyer.

Questions employers ask

Do we have to report an injury if we do not think it is work-related?: In most schemes, yes. WorkSafe Queensland is explicit that employers must report an injury to the insurer even if the worker does not make a claim and even if the employer does not agree the injury is compensable. WorkCover WA is equally direct: give the claim to your insurer even if you disagree with what has been claimed, or you perceive an error or omission on the claim form. Deciding whether the injury is compensable is the insurer's job, not yours.
Can we tell an injured worker which doctor to see?: No. In NSW the worker nominates their treating doctor, normally their own GP, and where the injury prevents them doing their normal job for seven days or more the law requires them to nominate one. In Queensland, employers must advise the worker of their right to access their choice of medical or other treatment provider. You can offer access to a service and explain what it does. You cannot make the choice for the worker.
Do we need a return-to-work coordinator?: It depends on the state and on your size. South Australia requires one at 30 or more workers employed for a continuous period of three or more months. Tasmania requires one above 100 workers. The ACT requires one for self-insurers and employers with an annual premium of $200,000 or more. NSW ties it to Category 1 status, Victoria to rateable remuneration, and Queensland to a wages multiple of Queensland ordinary time earnings. The Northern Territory has no requirement at all. The thresholds are set out with sources in the coordinator section above.
The certificate says the worker has some capacity. What do we do with it?: Turn the restrictions into named tasks. A certificate describes capacity and limitations, not a job. In Victoria the medical practitioner completes the certificate based on what the worker can do at work, and the employer must start planning for return to work as soon as they receive the claim or the certificate of capacity, whichever happens first. Write down the specific tasks on offer, the hours, who supervises, and a review date that lines up with the end of the certified period.
What is different about a psychological injury claim?: The rules, the paperwork and the timeframes. In Victoria, if the claim includes a mental injury the employer must submit Part A of the claim form to their agent within 3 business days rather than 10 calendar days. In NSW, primary psychological injuries first notified on or after 1 July 2026 are only compensable where they were caused by a defined relevant event, and the person making the notification has to identify at least one of those events. Certificates also carry more weight: WorkSafe Victoria asks that the certificate state a diagnosis using the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Can we use the medical documents in a performance or disciplinary process?: No. In Queensland it is an offence to use workers' compensation documents for any purpose relating to employment, including disciplinary action or decisions about whether employment should continue, and WorkSafe Queensland advises keeping rehabilitation records separate from employment records. Treat that as the standard everywhere: the certificate exists to plan recovery and work, not to build a file.
Do you decide whether a claim is accepted?: No. We assess, treat, and document. The insurer decides liability, and the regulator sets the rules the insurer applies. We do not determine liability, provide legal advice, or guarantee any claim outcome, and nothing on this page is legal advice for your particular matter.

Working through a case right now?

Same-day or next-business-day triage, a clinical assessment built around the worker's actual role, and documentation prepared for the scheme you are in. One referral pathway, one point of clinical accountability.

Get in touchOr call (02) 8530 7588 during business hours.