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Important changes to South Australia’s work injury insurance scheme

Wednesday 6 November 2024

The Parliament of South Australia recently passed the Return to Work (Employment and Progressive Injuries) Amendment Act 2024, which amends the Return to Work Act 2014 (the Act) with most of the changes expected to come into effect on 1 December 2024.

The main changes at a glance

The legislation has delivered two key outcomes.

Firstly, it strengthens protections for workers returning from injury by extending an employer’s obligation to provide them with suitable employment. It also addresses financial consequences for employers who do not comply with this. These amendments also cover self-insured employers, labour hire employers and host employers.

Secondly, the legislation makes it easier for workers suffering from dust diseases and/or a terminal illness resulting from a work injury to access entitlements more quickly. It achieves this by more clearly defining when a worker’s condition has ‘stabilised’, at which point they may seek a permanent impairment assessment and introduces a fair way to calculate their financial support.

These changes will foster a more supportive and fairer environment for injured workers and more clarity for employers.

Self-insured employers

As a self-insured employer, the Act includes several important amendments that affect your business, particularly in terms of recovery/return to work services and section 18 obligations where a worker is injured while working for a group self-insured employer. If you are a private self-insured employer, subsection 18(16c) now stipulates that the duty to provide suitable employment extends to each related body corporate in the group. If you are an agency or instrumentality of the Crown, subsection 18(16c) now stipulates that the duty to provide suitable employment extends to all such agencies or instrumentalities of the Crown.

Labour Hire/Host Employers

These amendments include important changes affecting labour hire employers and host employers as defined in the Act. Host employers must now cooperate with labour hire employers in the return to work process for injured workers. This cooperation is essential for ensuring effective and timely reintegration of workers into the workplace.

Our commitment to you

We know these changes will require a period of adjustment and ReturnToWorkSA is here to help you understand what they mean for you and how you might need to respond. ReturnToWorkSA will send for review, amendments to the Injury Management standards and guidance notes reflecting the changes.

Please visit the ReturnToWorkSA website for more information about the changes in detail. We encourage you to visit to learn more.

As always, if you require further assistance, you can contact your Evaluator or email ReturnToWorkSA self-insured team - selfinsured@rtwsa.com.