Injured Workers Day
Ms HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (10:00): June 1 is Injured Workers Day, the day designated for us to stand in solidarity with workers injured on the job. On 1 June this year I attended Injured Workers Day at the Victorian Trades Hall Council to gather with those who have been injured at work, their unions and the health and safety professionals that support them. The theme for this year’s Injured Workers Day was ‘invisible injuries’, mental injuries that may be unseen but are just as debilitating, injuries that have detrimentally changed workers’ lives forever financially, in their daily lives and also with their families, many of whom become the injured workers’ carers—either children or partners. This important occasion was organised by the Health and Community Services Union, HACSU for short, together with the Victorian Trades Hall Council. Special mention goes to Stephanie Thuesen for all her work and tireless energy in support of working people.
Prior to the formal program of the day, I met with injured workers from the Injured Workers Support Network, who spoke to me about how they sustained their injuries. All were preventable had better health and safety systems been in place. They spoke to me about the problems with the workers compensation system—it has many failings—a system that the Andrews Labor government commissioned the Rozen review for, which has released its recommendations. The government has overwhelmingly accepted most of those recommendations.