Injured BIS Truckie Hurt by Compo Hold-Up

• General News
• 5th February 2014

BIS Brunswick tanker driver Greg Miller knows what it is like to be kicked in the guts by the Comcare workers compensation system.

For the past few years Greg has suffered from debilitating shoulder injuries which he has no doubt are work-related.

Repetitive use of the very heavy hoses used for pumping the milk into and out of the tankers appears to have caused his problems.

Under the Comcare system companies such as BIS are required to self-insure employees and manage any claims.

This can cause all sorts of problems. There can be conflicts of interest when firms try to keep claims to a minimum to avoid increases in their insurance premiums.

We are not saying that’s what happened in Greg’s case but as a seven-year employee he certainly seems to have been treated appallingly.

In August 2012 he was diagnosed with Bursitis (frozen left shoulder) and initially BIS accepted his claim and put him back on medically restricted duties.

However BIS failed to provide suitable duties and required Greg to do – more or less – his normal job.

The work is highly physical, especially on the upper body, arms and shoulders which was adverse to Greg’s recovery.

Then in June 2013 the right shoulder was also injured at work with a similar diagnosis to the left.

Struggling to cope with his degenerating body he began suffering from anxiety and depression.

He had surgery on the left shoulder in July 2013 and was due have the right shoulder operated on in October.

But despite accepting the left shoulder claim, BIS is now refusing to pay any workers compensation payments or medical bills.

At 4pm on the day before Greg was to go under the knife the Millers received a BIS email declining Greg’s claim.

Greg and his wife Kathy had to pay for the surgery on their credit card along with other medical costs.

The Millers weren’t destitute but things were heading that way.

It gets worse. BIS recently lost a big milk contract and redundancies were offered to the drivers.

All drivers except Greg that is!

To get his redundancy package BIS wanted him to sign a declaration waiving his right to workers compensation.

It was around this point that TWU lawyer Adam Dzieciol and myself went into bat for the Millers.

We went in hard and certainly got things moving on the scoreboard.

BIS agreed to pay out Greg’s redundancy and the $17,000 certainly helped the couple’s hard hit credit card balance.

We then got busy with an Income Protection claim that had been held up because BIS had failed to complete its part of the application form.

The Millers are now receiving regular income protection payments while we try to sort out the workers compensation issues.