By Andrew Laxon
political reporter
Employers may keep some degree of choice over their ACC arrangements, no matter who wins the next election. Labour has promised to scrap the introduction of competition for workplace accident cover, which starts next week.
But Labour's ACC spokeswoman, Ruth Dyson, confirmed yesterday that the party would keep its own version of National's accredited employer scheme, which allows businesses to opt out of ACC and manage their own claims and rehabilitation for workers.
She said the main difference would be that employers would not be able to contract out the management of cases, as they could now. They would have to prove to ACC that they could handle cases themselves before winning accreditation.
The accredited employers' scheme, launched by the National Government in 1995, involves about 90 employers and covers about 200,000 workers. Employers can manage cases for up to two years before the case is regarded as long term and returns to ACC.
By last year, employers on the scheme had reduced their accident rate by 15 per cent. The number of workers on ACC for more than a year had fallen from 12.7 per cent to 7.4 per cent. It is understood Labour - which opposed the scheme when it was introduced - was initially sceptical about keeping it, but was persuaded by the Engineers Union, which represents more ACC claimants than any other union.
Its health and safety coordinator, Hazel Armstrong, said the accredited employers' scheme worked better than traditional ACC attempts at rehabilitation because companies had their own experts on site.
If National leads the next Government after the election, the rest of ACC is likely to be opened up to competition.
The Minister for ACC, Murray McCully, said last year that he was seriously considering introducing competition in the ACC earners' account, which covers non-work accidents such as sports injuries.
