Casey backs Workcover bid- Councillors Geoff Ablett and Daniel Mulino may think twice about fu

By Bridget Brady
CASEY councillors are among a tiny minority of workers in the state who are not protected by Workcover.
Councillors last week threw their weight behind the push for civic leaders to gain Workcover protection, saying it was a right most assumed they would already have.
Victorian councillors are not protected by Workcover if they are injured during civic duties. Currently, it is up to the discretion of each council to extend their insurance policies if a councillor is injured during official business, but has no legal obligation to do so, the president of the Victorian Local Governance Association (VLGA) said.
This is because a councillor is not officially employed by the council, and their wage is in fact an allowance.
River Gum Ward councillor Wayne Smith said many members of the community would expect civic leaders to be covered. And he said many of the current Casey councillors were new, and may have assumed they were protected.
“But because of this strange anomaly in the legislation we (councillors) are not employed, but we have rights and responsibilities like employees,” Cr Smith said.
“But we’re constantly on the road, constantly walking around, and things can happen. We’ve been lucky in 12 years that nothing has.”
Casey’s manager of administration Ian Sparrow said the council had no existing policy on the matter, but had personal accident insurance for councillors. VLGA president Rose Iser said she did not know of many instances when councillors were inured, so councils providing protection to civic leaders should not be an onerous task.
“It is a fair and reasonable expectation that there is some (cover),” Cr Iser said.
“I think that anyone who is undertaking public duties does constitute a form of work and it is reasonable to afford to those people the certainty to cover medical costs should something unexpected occur.”
The State Government had expressed its support for councillors to gain Workcover protection and the matter was due to come up for discussion soon, Cr Iser said.
State and federal MPs are also not employed, but are covered by Workcover, Cr Iser said. Four Oaks Ward councillor Shar Balmes said she supported the call for councillors to be covered.
“We spend a lot of time out in the community in all kinds of interesting situations,” Cr Balmes said.
On Black Saturday, Cr Balmes said she walked around areas that were still smoking and said that was one example of a potentially risky situation.