The NSW Government plans to amend workers’ compensation laws to ensure injured workers cannot be fired for making a claim.

Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca says the Federal Government’s far-reaching WorkChoices legislation forced the State Government to reinforce its provisions for worker safety.

“Under WorkChoices there’s nothing stopping an unscrupulous employer from sacking a worker who’s injured on the job, leaving them on the scrap heap,” he said.

The push for change comes after a construction worker was sacked just a few weeks after lodging a workers’ compensation claim.

But the Federal Government says the claim was coincidental. Omir Majstrovic was one of 41 people made redundant because of a downturn in the industry, Prime Minister John Howard said last week.

Mr Della Bosca says the new laws transfer existing measures in the state’s Industrial Relations Act to its workers’ compensation legislation. He says this should take precedence over the WorkChoices laws. Ensuring employees have jobs to return to is an important element in their recovery.