Victorian WorkSafe agents slammed in new ombudsman report

The Victorian Ombudsman has handed down a scathing report on the state’s WorkSafe agencies, noting numerous privacy breaches and delays in payments as a result of poor record keeping practices.

The report into record keeping practices has made a number of recommendations to WorkSafe, including that it takes immediate action to ensure agents comply with record keeping obligations, introduce a modern IT system and audit agents’ record keeping as priority.

Some offices were in such disarray that workers’ records were kept in unorganised piles several feet high, presenting a safety risk.

“It is of concern that WorkSafe and its external auditors have not highlighted the generally poor standard of record keeping despite numerous visits,” Ombudsman George Brouwer said in one particular scathing section of the report, which was tabled in state Parliament yesterday.

The investigation began when Brouwer noticed an increasing level of complaints regarding WorkSafe and its six agents – Allianz, CGU, GIO, QBE, Gallagher Bassett and Xchanging. The number rose from 246 complaints in 2007-08 to 312 in 2009-10.

“Many of the complainants who approached my office raised concerns about having to repeatedly submit the same documentation to the agents and delays in service this was creating,” he said in the report. “As a result, I decided to conduct an own motion investigation into the record keeping and administrative practices at WorkSafe agents.”

Currently the six agencies are responsible for the delivery of WorkSafe payments, and as such hold on to countless employee records – but the report claims these reports were found in a terrible state of chaos.

“Files with destroyed covers; files overfilled; documents loose and not bound to anything; files stacked up on the floor and on top of cabinets obstructing walkways and creating occupational health and safety hazards,” are just some of the observations contained in the report.

“The management of these files is unacceptable and creates a risk of documents being lost, destroyed or allocated to the wrong file.”

Not only does this poor-record keeping reduce the efficiency of the agencies, but the report has found such practices not only delayed payments for workers, but actually resulted in multiple breaches of privacy.

In fact, the record keeping was so bad that the report found agents at CGU were actually artificially manipulating the number of receipts for payments sent out. The agent received a fine of $2.8 million.

“The practice went undetected by CGU and WorkSafe for approximately nine months before being uncovered,” the report said.

One of the more concerning examples was where poor record keeping resulted in an agent not responding to repeated requests for assistance. This agent also assigned an injured worker new case managers without communicating this, and didn’t even keep the worker’s correspondence file.

“With the exception of QBE, none of the agents scan or record incoming or outgoing mail,” Brouwer said.

“Therefore the physical file houses the only record of correspondence that relates to the claim and used by the agent to manage the claim.”

Those findings were only just for physical files – digital record keeping is just as bad. In fact, the report found personal email accounts of case managers often record and store email communication with employers, injured workers and WorkSafe.

“Although my investigators were advised that emails relating to a case are meant to be copied and recorded on the Novus system or the physical file, my investigators found few emails on either Novus or the physical files examined at any of the agents.”

One QBE manager said “there are not enough hours in the day” when questioned over a lack of detailed notes attached to digital files.

The report has recommended WorkSafe take the following action:

• Ensure agents comply with obligations for record keeping.
• Introduce a modern IT system.
• Audit agents’ record keeping.
• Introduce a central registry for all accounts and invoices.
• Require written correspondence is double-checked.
• Create a standard procedure list for document creation and storage.
• Ensure agents introduce a formal handover procedure when changing case managers for a worker.
• Ensure all documents created electronically organised one case are kept together.

WorkSafe responded to the report in a statement, saying that it accepts the recommendations and that it is working with the agents for more “high quality service standards”.

“While managing millions of documents and around 56,000 active claims each year is never easy in a system like ours, WorkSafe recognises there is room for improvement.”