Injury or illness - first steps
If a work-related injury or illness happens to you (if you’re a worker) or to one of your workers (if you’re an employer), there are certain steps you must take straight away.
If you’re a worker, you should:
- see your doctor or go to the hospital immediately for initial treatment
- get a work capacity certificate from your treating doctor
- let your employer know what has happened as soon as you can and give them your work capacity certificate
- make a claim with WorkCover (or talk to your employer if they are self-insured). We’ll also need a copy of your work capacity certificate as we can only provide support from the date your doctor first assessed your injury.
- begin rehabilitation as soon as you can. This will help your recovery and your employer is obligated to help you with this.
If you’re an employer you should:
- make contact with your worker as early as possible after the injury.
- let WorkCover know the injury has happened. If you are self-insured, you need to let your insurer know. Find out why you need to do this.
- lodge your report within 8 business days of becoming aware of the injury or of WorkCover requesting the information from you. More information on how to report an injury can be found on the make a claim page.
- start planning your worker’s return to work with them.
You'll need to report the injury to WorkCover even if your worker doesn’t make a claim and even if you don’t agree it may be eligible for compensation.
In some instances you may have to notify Workplace Health and safety Queensland (WHSQ) of the incident. First you'll need to confirm whether the incident is notifiable.
To let WorkCover know about an injury, you need to provide some simple information about your worker and what has happened. You’ll need to tell us:
- your worker's full name, date of birth, and personal contact information
- your policy number—if you aren't sure, you can give us your business name, ABN or ACN
- the type of injury and details about how and when it happened.
You can also lodge a claim for your worker. In addition to the above, you’ll also need:
- your copy of the worker's work capacity certificate
- normal weekly earnings wage figures and working hours for your worker (if they’re taking time off work). You’ll also need the amount payable under your worker’s industrial agreement.
If you don't have some of this information, or you’re not sure what information you need, call us on 1300 362 128.