The Federal Government’s workers’ compensation scheme, Comcare, must be reformed to remain financially viable, the Senate was told last week.

A Senate committee investigating reform of the scheme under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill recommended the legislation be passed, although Labour and Greens committee members wrote dissenting reports.

Human Services Minister Marise Payne told the Senate the scheme allows claims for conditions unrelated to work, and treatments that are not evidence-based.

“People are not getting back to work as quickly as they should and this is causing costs to spiral and creating negative perceptions of the scheme within the community,” she said when introducing the Bill to the Senate last Monday.

She says unlike most state and territory schemes, a reformed Comcare will still provide income payments until pension age and lifetime medical and rehabilitation expenses.

Employers will have a greater responsibility and better incentives to provide alternate work or reduced hours, and employees will be required to seek, engage and remain in suitable employment.

Comcare will have the power to start or take over rehabilitation.

A Senate committee report finds “the integrity of the Comcare scheme has been comprised and that, as a result, to continue with the scheme on its current trajectory is financially unsustainable”.

It says the focus on vocational rehabilitation will improve return-to-work rates and benefit injured employees.

Dissenting Labor committee members say the Bill reduces workers’ rights and they do not agree with the majority view that greater rigour is needed in claims assessment to reduce fraud.

They say the Bill is being changed to exclude as many workers as possible, and to shift costs from the scheme to workers.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon also opposes the Bill, saying it is a “significant attack on workers’ rights and entitlements” and swings the balance too far towards employers.

The report says the Comcare scheme was established “in an era with low expectations of recovery and return to work after illness or injury” and needs modernisation to take account of changes in healthcare practices and research on the benefits of returning to work.

Return-to-work rates have fallen from 89% in 1988 to 80%, while claims costs grew 37% in the five years to 2012/13.