Workers’ Compensation at Toll in New South Wales

If you are injured at work, reporting your injury or illness to Toll is a crucial step to ensure your wellbeing and comply with workplace regulations. Below is a step-by-step guide on how you (or someone on your behalf) can report an injury or illness to Toll:

Seek Medical Attention

• Immediate Action: If the illness or injury is serious, follow first aid procedures and call 000 for an ambulance. Your health and safety come first. 
• First Aid: If the illness or injury is not serious, seek first aid and proceed with the next steps.

Notify Toll

• Notification: Inform your immediate supervisor or manager as soon as possible, no matter how minor the injury may seem. This can be done verbally. If you don’t feel comfortable reporting the injury / illness to your supervisor and wish to notify Toll in writing, please email [email protected] and a representative from the Toll Injury Management Team will make contact with you.  
• Timing: Report the illness or injury as soon as it happens, or as soon as you become aware of it. Delays in reporting can complicate the process and may affect your ability to claim workers’ compensation.

Consider Available Injury Management Pathways

• Self-Management: Not every injury or illness requires medical management. If you believe you can self-manage your condition, provided you have taken steps to formally report the injury or illness, this is an acceptable and suitable strategy.  
• Toll Early Intervention Program: In New South Wales Toll offers an 'opt in' early intervention program which is designed to ensure all Toll employees who report a work-related injury can receive early advice, medical treatment and a safe transition back to work. Please speak with your supervisor or a representative from the Toll Injury Management Team if you wish to proceed down this pathway. 
• Workers’ Compensation Claim: The following two avenues are available in New South Wales to make a formal workers’ compensation claim: 
  • Once Toll have been notified of your injury / illness, no matter how minor, a workers’ compensation claim will be submitted on your behalf through Toll’s automated systems of work. A representative from the Toll Injury Management Team will then contact you to discuss your injury for triage purposes and recommend any next steps. 
  • The other avenue is to formally submit a claim by completing a workers’ compensation claim form and providing same to your supervisor or emailing to [email protected]. You can obtain a copy of the claim form in the 'Scheme Forms' section below. 

Once Toll have received your claim and any supporting documents, we will contact you to acknowledge receipt and confirm any necessary next steps required. Toll must make an initial decision on the claim within 7 days of us receiving your claim form or injury notification. Toll’s decision must be one of the following:

Accept liability:

If Toll accepts liability for your claim, there are different types of payments and support available, depending on your circumstances. Further information can be found in the 'Workers' Compensation Benefits Guide' published below in the 'Scheme Information' section. 

Reject liability:

If your claim isn’t accepted, Toll will speak with you to explain the reasons for the decision and will also put the decision in writing to you. Further information in relation to decision review pathways can be found in the next section. 

Issue a decision on provisional liability:

If Toll cannot make a decision on liability within 7 days, a Toll Case Manager will call you to let you know why and also put this in writing to you. Unless a ‘reasonable excuse’ has been issued, provisional payments will commence and continue until a decision can be made, for up to 12 weeks of payments pertaining to loss of income and / or up to $10,000 for reasonably necessary medical treatment. 

Provisional liability allows Toll to provide financial assistance and early support whilst further necessary investigations are taking place to determine liability. Commencing provisional income support payments and medical expenses does not mean Toll admits liability, however early medical intervention and treatment support whilst liability is being investigated, has been shown to achieve better return to work outcomes for all parties. Toll has until the end of the provisional liability period to make a formal decision, however can make an earlier decision as necessary information comes to hand. 

A ’reasonable excuse’ is defined as being one or more of the following: 

• There is insufficient medical information to establish there is an injury;
• The injured person is unlikely to be considered a ‘worker’ as defined by the Act;
• Toll is unable to contact the person;
• The injured person refuses to allow Toll access to information;
• The injury is not work related;
• There is no requirement for weekly compensation benefits ie there is no time lost from work; and / or
• The injury is notified to Toll after two months. 

If liability for your claim has been denied by Toll, you will receive formal notice in writing. 

If you're unhappy with the decision made by Toll, you can apply for an internal review of the decision and / or you can proceed directly to the Personal Injury Commission to have the dispute determined (it should be noted you have the option of proceeding to the Personal Injury Commission while waiting for the outcome of an internal review by Toll). 

The request for an internal review must be in writing (email or post) to Toll. You can prepare your own request for internal review by completing the 'Application for Internal Review by Toll' form below in the 'Scheme Forms' section and submitting to [email protected], seeking assistance from the Independent Review Office Click Here, or via retaining a private legal representative. 

When Toll receives a request for an internal review, the decision must be reviewed with a response provided within 14 days. The review will be conducted by an appropriately qualified Toll representative who has not been substantially involved in making the original decision. 

Following internal review, Toll will overturn, modify or maintain the original decision. 

If you do not wish to seek an internal review of the decision by Toll, or don’t want to wait for the outcome of the internal review, you can lodge an application to resolve the dispute through the Personal Injury Commission. The process for resolving a dispute depends on the nature of the dispute. See below for further information:

Click Here

There are a number of ways Toll can support you while you’re recovering from a work-related injury or illness. Workers’ compensation may provide payments for:

• Lost income
• Medical and rehabilitation costs
• Treatment and claim related travel
• Lump sum compensation for permanent impairment
• Death benefits and funeral costs

Further information can be found in the 'Scheme Information' section below. 

After you report your injury and make a claim for workers’ compensation, your Toll Manager and a representative from the Toll Injury Management Team (or Toll appointed Independent Workplace Rehabilitation Provider) will consult with you to devise and implement a recover at work plan.

Getting back to work is an important part of rehabilitation and helps with your recovery. Feeling nervous or worried about returning to work is normal for anyone who has been off work for a period of time, regardless of the duration. Your recover at work plan should focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t do. When developing your plan, it will be Toll’s role to find suitable work and your doctor’s role to assess your ability to undertake the duties identified.

Your role when developing a recover at work program is to:

• Take an active part in the process. 
• Suggest ways to modify your work demands to match your current work capacity, either temporarily or permanently ie equipment, workplace / task modifications, workplace practice changes etc. 
• Provide your doctor, Toll Manager with a copy of the recover at work plan. 
• Advise Toll of any change to your certified capacity or difficulties you are experiencing so the plan can be reviewed and updated as necessary. 
• Understand your own capacity and the duties you can do. 

If you wish to discuss any aspect of the claim process further, please email [email protected] and a representative from the workers’ compensation team will telephone you or respond via email within 2 business days.