Wife, Kids Exiled Over Compo

An injured tiler has been forced to send his wife and kids to Peru after doctors slashed his workers comp claim by two thirds.

After 20 years in the building game construction worker Max Masias was forced out of the industry on medical advice while compo doctors hacked his entitlement from $23 700 to $4 800.

"We have a compensation system that doesn't compensate," says Masias, who was forced to go into debt to send his family back to Peru, as he could no longer afford to keep them in Australia on his compensation payments of $380 per week.

In 2002 Dr George Weisz, an Orthopaedic Surgeon and WorkCover approved medical specialist, told Masias that if he continued working in Construction he would end up in a wheelchair. Weisz assessed Masias' disabilities as being worth $23 700.

After Masias' claim was lodged the insurance company made an offer of $15 000. A subsequent assessment of Masias' impairment was levelled at just %8, reducing his compensation entitlement to just $4 800.

Masias, whose three children are 10, 6 and 4 years of age, has taken a stand because "there are plenty of workers in his situation".

"I have seen other families where there is an accident and the income drops dramatically and couples split."

Masias, who says he misses his family deeply, is determined not to become another statistic.

"It's hard to speak up but I have to."

Concerned NSW Unions are set to raise the case with the Minister for Commerce, John Della-Bosca.

"We told the Minister that this was coming when the reforms to workers compensation were introduced and now it's starting to happen," says NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson. "Every time this happens we will be sitting the minister down with the workers so the Minister can say face to face to the worker why the worker is worse off."

To discuss this and many other interesting OH & S topics visit our discussion boards at http://unionsafe.labor.net.au/shoptalk/

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Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:37 EST