Workers Compensation for Residential Builders in Tasmania

What it is

Workers compensation in Tasmania runs under the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Tas) and the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2011. It pays weekly payments, medical and other expenses, rehabilitation and permanent impairment compensation to a worker injured in the course of their employment, on a no-fault basis.

The WorkCover Tasmania Board licenses insurers, grants self-insurance permits, accredits medical practitioners and approves injury management programs. WorkSafe Tasmania monitors the scheme and enforces the Act. As at 30 June 2025 there were six licensed insurers and eight self-insurers.

Who must hold cover

Section 97 requires an employer who is not a self-insurer to maintain in force, with a licensed insurer, a policy of insurance that indemnifies the employer for the full amount of its liabilities to pay compensation under the Act, and for any liability arising independently of the Act for an injury a worker suffers in the course of employment.

An employer who fails to comply commits an offence and is liable to a fine of up to 500 penalty units. A Tasmanian penalty unit was $205 for 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, so the maximum sits above 100,000 dollars.

On conviction the court must also order the employer to pay the Board an amount equal to the insurance premiums it avoided at any time in the 7 years before conviction, whether by not insuring, by failing to give the wage estimate or wage statement the Act requires, or by giving false information in one of them.

How premium is calculated

Tasmania is privately underwritten. The employer buys the policy from a licensed insurer and the insurer prices it. The inputs come from the employer, and the Act makes them compulsory:

• Within 60 days after applying to issue or renew a policy, section 97(6) requires an estimate of the aggregate wages to be paid to workers over the premium period, plus a statement of the trade, occupation and calling of those workers
• Within 60 days after the policy ends, section 97(7) requires a full and correct statement of the wages actually paid, with the same detail
• Failing either is an offence carrying a fine of up to 100 penalty units

The premium is, in substance, the insurer rate for the employer industry classification applied to the employer wages, adjusted for that employer claims record. WorkCover Tasmania publishes suggested industry premium rates each year as a reference point, and is itself funded by a levy on workers compensation premiums.

Worker or contractor

A worker in Tasmania is someone who works under a contract of service or a training agreement. That includes casual employment, and the contract can be verbal or implied rather than written.

Tasmania has no construction-specific deeming provision. The Act deems a closed list of people to be workers and building subcontractors are not on it. The list covers prescribed volunteers such as volunteer fire-fighters and ambulance workers, taxi and luxury hire car drivers, jockeys and apprentice jockeys, and salespeople, canvassers and collectors paid by commission. Working directors are not named, but courts have generally treated a director whose earnings are for personal labour as a worker.

That makes the contract of service test the whole ball game for a builder. There is no deeming schedule to fall back on and an ABN proves nothing. The question is who controls how the work is done, whether the person can delegate, who carries the commercial risk and whether they genuinely run their own business.

Get the classification wrong and there is no insurer standing behind the claim. The builder carries it.

Notification and claim timeframes

• The worker tells the employer as soon as possible after the injury
• Within 14 days of that notice, the employer must give the worker the prescribed notice of their right to make a claim
• Most claims must be made within 6 months of the date of injury
• The employer must tell its insurer within 3 working days that it has received the claim, and forward the completed employer section of the claim form within 5 working days
• Weekly payments start whether or not the employer disputes liability, and medical and other expenses up to $5,000 are paid on the same without prejudice basis
• The employer or insurer must tell the worker the status of the claim within 28 days
• The employer has 84 days from receiving the claim to dispute liability. Miss that and liability is taken to be accepted
• The injured worker job must generally be kept open for 12 months

What to do about it

Have the policy in force before the first worker sets foot on site, and give the insurer a wage estimate that covers everyone who might be a worker under a contract of service, not just the people on payroll. When an injury is reported, diarise the 14-day, 3-working-day, 5-working-day, 28-day and 84-day steps immediately, because the 84-day one decides liability by default.