Medical assessments kept in check - Public Service Association

Medical assessments kept in check

Red Tape (Jan – April 2016)

The PSA has successfully lobbied the Public Service Commission (PSC) to improve its changes to medical assessments for non work related medical conditions and injuries.

Based on the issues the PSA brought to the PSC’s attention, the PSC made some improvements to the proposed guidelines, such as:

  • more stringent requirements surrounding consultation with an employee prior to determining if a medical assessment is necessary
  • mandatory steps that an agency must undertake when making a decision about an employee’s medical retirement
  • the obligation on an agency to investigate if alternative duties are available in the instance the  employee’s medical advice states that alternative duties are an option.

Under the Government Sector Employment Act 2013 (NSW), agencies are entitled to direct employees to undertake a medical assessment if they believe an employee is suffering from a non-work related injury or health condition which is impacting on their ability to perform their role.

At the end of this assessment, there is the possibility an employee may be medically retired.

To date this process has been managed by a sector-wide policy.

However, in draft guidelines issued on 11 November 2015  the PSC proposed this policy be devolved to the agency.

Individual agencies will therefore be able to determine their own procedures surrounding medical assessments.

While the PSA welcomes the changes, some of the union’s concerns remain, including issues surrounding the devolution of the medical assessments policy.

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