The various parties involved in NSW WorkCover are squaring up over proposed reforms.

UnionsNSW, the state’s peak trade union body, has launched a campaign against proposals to abolish cover on journeys to and from work and the introduction of capacity testing and earlier “step down”, or reduction in payments, to encourage people back to work.

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has had to counter Greens Party suggestions that insurers are rorting the scheme, while UnionsNSW says it is a myth that employees are cheating WorkCover.

The NSW Government recently released an issues paper on WorkCover, saying if the $4 billion deficit is not addressed, premiums will have to rise by an average 28%.

NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge says that since 1997 private insurers have been paid more than $3.9 billion to manage workers’ compensation claims, with insurers’ fees growing more than five times faster than inflation and WorkCover benefits.

He says the fees have risen while workplace accidents have fallen and that the Government should reduce “paper shuffling” that has eroded the scheme’s financial sustainability.

But ICA CEO Rob Whelan says reforms are needed if WorkCover is to remain viable.

He says the Government has acknowledged that WorkCover has increased the proportion of agent remuneration linked to better performance in areas such as return to work and that insurers’ costs in the scheme are not high by Australian standards.

The average premium in NSW is 1.68% of wages, compared with 1.34% in Victoria and 1.42% in Queensland.