Workers Compensation Tasmania: WorkSafe Tasmania Claims and Payments

Workers compensation in Tasmania is overseen by the WorkCover Tasmania Board and administered day to day by WorkSafe Tasmania under the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988, with claims due within 6 months of the injury.

Tasmania's workers compensation scheme runs under the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988, which has been heavily amended since 1988. This guide covers claim deadlines, weekly payments, medical expenses, permanent impairment lump sums, the common-law threshold and dispute resolution, sourced to the Act's current text and WorkSafe Tasmania's official guidance.

Who Runs Workers Compensation in Tasmania

Tasmania splits oversight and day-to-day administration between two bodies with similar names. The WorkCover Tasmania Board is the statutory body corporate, chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Justice, that oversees the scheme; it works with employers, employees, unions, medical practitioners, licensed insurers and self-insurers. WorkSafe Tasmania is the operational and regulatory arm that supports the Board's functions, including overseeing the scheme day to day and ensuring effective injury management, and is the practical point of contact for claimants. Insurance itself is privately underwritten: employers hold policies with licensed insurers, or hold a self-insurance permit, rather than paying into a single government fund.

Who Is Covered

The Act's standard test covers any person who has entered into or works under a contract of service or training contract with an employer, whether express or implied, oral or written. Beyond that baseline, several deeming provisions pull specific categories in: a contractor engaged for work worth more than $100 (a threshold unchanged, and unindexed, since it was inserted in 2000) who does not sublet or employ anyone and is not running their own trade or business is deemed a worker of the person who engaged them, unless the contractor holds their own personal accident insurance. A salesperson or other person paid wholly or partly by commission is deemed a worker of whoever pays the commission, unless the commission relates to the person's own trade or business. Participants in certain Commonwealth-funded, regulation-prescribed training programs are deemed workers of the training provider, and a person plying for hire with a vehicle obtained under a bailment arrangement is deemed a worker of the vehicle's owner. Crown employees are expressly included. No gig-economy or platform-worker-specific deeming provision was found in the Act, which appears to be a genuine gap in current Tasmanian law rather than an oversight in this summary.

Reporting an Injury and Claim Deadlines

Notice of injury must be given to the employer as soon as practicable after the injury and before the worker has voluntarily left the employment, and may be given orally or in writing. The claim for compensation itself must generally be made within 6 months after the date of the injury, or within 6 months of the date of death where the injury caused death. Industrial deafness is treated differently: a claim must be made while still employed by that employer, or within 6 months of leaving that employment. Certain mining-related diseases, including silicosis, pneumoconiosis, fibrosis, and lead or cadmium poisoning, each have their own separate latency windows before a further 6-month claim window applies. An employer who receives a claim is treated as having received notice of the injury as well.

Once a claim is lodged, weekly payments must generally start on the worker's first pay day if that falls within 14 days of lodging, and no later than 14 days after the employer receives the claim otherwise. The employer must also start paying medical and associated expenses up to $5,000 regardless of whether liability is disputed, unless the expense is unreasonable or unnecessary. A claim lodged within 14 days of the injury is back-paid to the injury date; a later claim is only back-paid to 14 days before it was lodged.

Weekly Payments

The base weekly payment equals the worker's normal weekly earnings, or the ordinary time rate for the pre-incapacity job, whichever is greater; a worker with partial incapacity gets the difference between that figure and their actual or potential earnings in suitable employment. From there, a step-down schedule applies: weeks 1 to 26 pay 100 percent of normal weekly earnings, weeks 27 to 78 pay 90 percent (or 95 percent if the employer fails to provide available suitable alternative duties the worker is medically fit for), and week 79 onward pays 80 percent (or 85 percent under the same suitable-duties failure test). No step-down applies for any week the worker is back at work for at least half their normal weekly hours.

How long the final, lowest step can run depends on the worker's whole-person impairment: under 15 percent, or not yet assessed, payments are payable for up to 9 years from the initial incapacity; 15 percent up to 20 percent extends that to 12 years; 20 percent up to 30 percent extends it to 20 years; and 30 percent or more removes the years-based cap altogether, with payments continuing until entitlement ceases under the Act's pension-age provision. A safety net applies throughout: a worker's combined weekly payment and earnings must not fall below 70 percent of the basic salary, or the calculated payment, whichever is lower.

All of this is keyed to the "basic salary," an indexed figure that started at $311.30 per week from 1 January 1991 and is varied annually. As of 1 January 2026, the basic salary is $1,149.72 per week, up from $1,097.01 in 2025 and $1,038.34 in 2024. Entitlement to weekly payments generally ceases at Commonwealth pension age if the injury occurred at least 2 years before that date, or 2 years after the injury otherwise, whichever gives the longer floor.

Medical and Other Expenses

The employer is liable for all reasonable expenses necessarily incurred for medical services, hospital services, household services such as cleaning, laundry and gardening, nursing and constant-attendant services, rehabilitation services and ambulance services. Process rules apply on both sides: the worker must forward a medical account to the employer within 7 days of receiving it, the employer forwards it to the insurer within 7 days, and the employer must pay within 28 days of receipt or explain in writing why not. Travel to medical or rehabilitation appointments is reimbursed at the Tasmanian State Service Award's occasional-user vehicle rate.

Permanent Impairment Lump Sums

Permanent impairment lump sums are calculated using whole-person impairment and the basic salary as at the date of injury, not the current year's figure. For general, non-psychiatric impairment, there is no compensation under this pathway below 5 percent whole-person impairment; between 5 percent and 70 percent, the amount is formula-based; above 70 percent, it is a flat cap of 415 units, where 1 unit equals 1 week's basic salary. At the 2026 basic salary this flat cap works out to roughly $477,000, though because the Act calculates the figure as at the date of injury, a worker injured in an earlier year would have the cap calculated against that year's basic salary instead. Psychiatric impairment uses a higher entry threshold, no compensation under this pathway below 10 percent, with the same formula-based band from 10 percent to 70 percent and the same 415-unit flat cap above 70 percent. Dependants' death lump sums are capped at the same 415 units.

Common-Law Damages

Tasmania sets a clear, codified threshold for common-law access. A settlement or court proceeding for common-law damages is barred unless a medical practitioner has certified whole-person impairment of at least 20 percent, and the Tribunal has separately determined impairment of at least 20 percent, or the injury involves the loss of a foetus, treated as equivalent. Compensation already paid is credited against any damages judgment, and obtaining a damages judgment, or settling on terms that extinguish further compensation claims, ends any undetermined compensation entitlement for that injury.

Dispute Resolution

Disputes are handled by the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, TASCAT, specifically its Personal Compensation Stream for workers compensation. TASCAT absorbed the former standalone Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal. It determines disputes over medical, rehabilitation and other expense payments, the starting or stopping of weekly payments, the amount of weekly payments, and return-to-work or rehabilitation programs, but it does not handle making a claim in the first place, general legal advice, employment disputes, or WorkCover investigations, which go to the employer, insurer, or WorkSafe Tasmania instead.

Employer Obligations and Return to Work

An employer must keep the worker's pre-injury job available for 12 months from the date of incapacity, unless medical evidence shows it is highly improbable the worker can return to that role, or the role no longer exists; failing to comply carries a fine of up to 100 penalty units. Where a worker cannot do their pre-injury job, the employer must provide suitable alternative duties, after consulting the worker and matching medical restrictions, subject to an unreasonable or impracticable carve-out; this also carries a fine of up to 100 penalty units. Employers must notify their insurer of a workplace injury and comply with approved injury management programs, and workers have reciprocal obligations, including disclosure to their chosen medical practitioners and participation in return-to-work efforts. Workers weighing a related employment issue, such as a dismissal following an injury, may find recordinglaw.com's guide to unfair dismissal in Australia useful background.

Death Benefits for Dependants

A dependent spouse or caring partner receives 100 percent of the deceased worker's normal weekly earnings for the first 26 weeks after death, 90 percent from week 27 to 78, and 80 percent from week 79 up to 2 years after death, when the entitlement ends. Dependent children receive separate weekly payments, and any lump sum to dependants is capped at the same 415 units used for permanent-impairment lump sums.

Cross-Border Work and Comcare

The Act contains a choice-of-law division that governs which state's workers compensation law applies when a worker's employment connects to more than one Australian state, addressing conflicts between Tasmania and other state schemes such as NSW or Victoria. Comcare is a separate Commonwealth scheme covering Australian Government employees, authorities and corporations, and licensed self-insurers under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth). The Tasmanian Act expressly carves these workers out: section 4(5)(da) excludes any person employed by or on behalf of the Crown in right of the Commonwealth, or by a body licensed under Part VIII of the SRC Act, from being a worker under the Tasmanian Act.

Related Reading

For how Tasmania's scheme compares with the other Australian states, see recordinglaw.com's guides to workers compensation in Western Australia and workers compensation in South Australia. For related workplace protections, see the guides to general protections and adverse action in Australia and the general statute of limitations in Australia for how time limits work more broadly across Australian law.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the time limit to claim workers compensation in Tasmania?

A claim must generally be made within 6 months after the date of the injury, or within 6 months of the date of death if the injury caused death, under section 32(1)(b) of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988. Industrial deafness and specific mining-related diseases have their own separate, disease-specific notice and claim windows, some longer and some shorter than the standard period.

How do weekly workers compensation payments step down in Tasmania?

Payments start at 100 percent of normal weekly earnings for weeks 1 to 26, step down to 90 percent for weeks 27 to 78 (95 percent if the employer fails to provide available suitable duties), then to 80 percent from week 79 onward (85 percent under the same suitable-duties failure rule). How long the 80 percent step can run for depends on the worker's whole-person impairment, from 9 years for impairment under 15 percent up to payment until pension age for impairment of 30 percent or more.

What impairment threshold allows common-law damages in Tasmania?

Whole-person impairment of at least 20 percent, both medically certified and Tribunal-determined, under section 138AB of the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988. Below that threshold, a common-law settlement or the commencement of common-law proceedings is barred.

Who handles workers compensation disputes in Tasmania?

The Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, TASCAT, through its Personal Compensation Stream for workers compensation. TASCAT absorbed the former standalone Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal, and it handles disputes over expense payments, weekly payments, and return-to-work or rehabilitation programs, but it does not handle making a claim in the first place or general employment disputes.

Is Tasmanian workers compensation insurance provided by the government?

No. Employers hold policies with licensed private insurers or hold a self-insurance permit; there is no single government monopoly fund. The WorkCover Tasmania Board oversees the scheme as a whole, while WorkSafe Tasmania is the day-to-day regulatory point of contact for claimants.