Workers compensation (Tasmania)

What the scheme requires

• Who must insure: A Tasmanian employer must either take out a workers compensation policy with a licensed insurer or hold a WorkCover Tasmania Board permit to self-insure, under the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1998. A domestic worker in a private household is deemed a worker after 48 hours of employment in total. TAS · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Tasmania · 2026-08-13
• Premium basis: Policies are bought from licensed insurers, which set premiums; WorkSafe Tasmania publishes suggested premium rates (2026-27 current) and a guideline on the definition of wages on its employer insurance pages. TAS · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Tasmania · 2026-08-13
• Certificate of currency process: From your licensed insurer, and as in the Northern Territory there is no statutory process behind it. The phrase certificate of currency appears zero times in the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 and zero times in WorkSafe Tasmania's employer insurance guidance — the Act's certificate references are overwhelmingly the medical certificate of capacity. An employer must either maintain a policy with a licensed insurer or hold a permit to self-insure from the WorkCover Tasmania Board, and the certificate comes from the insurer as a commercial document. On demanding one from a subcontractor, Tasmania goes further than the Territory but not as far as it first appears. Section 4B(3) does create a genuine duty to provide evidence of insurance to the person the contract is made with — but read the limits: it is evidence of personal accident insurance, owed only by a contractor who counts as a deemed worker, meaning work over a low value threshold that is not incidental to a trade the contractor regularly carries on in their own name, where the contractor neither sublets nor employs anyone. It is not a right to demand a workers compensation certificate from a genuine subcontracting business, and no offence attaches to refusing. Tasmania otherwise mirrors the deemed-liability approach: a principal is liable to a contractor's worker as if it had employed them directly. TAS · effective 2026-08-25 WorkSafe Tasmania · 2026-08-13
• Small employer exemption: No small-employer exemption is stated: every Tasmanian employer must insure with a licensed insurer or hold a self-insurance permit, which is described as usually for large businesses. Even a private householder becomes an employer once a domestic worker passes 48 hours of employment. TAS · effective 2026-08-13 WorkSafe Tasmania · 2026-08-13

Who administers it

• WorkSafe Tasmania — Tasmania’s work health and safety regulator and workers compensation scheme authority.

The cover this scheme deals with

• Workers compensation insurance — Statutory cover for injury to workers, arranged through each state or territory scheme rather than on the open market.

What this scheme does not do

Scheme cover and a business’s own insurance answer different questions. A workers compensation scheme responds to injury and illness suffered by a business’s own workers; it does not cover injury to members of the public, damage the business causes to someone else’s property, or the business’s own assets.

• Where injury to the public is dealt with
• Who counts as a worker

Sources

• WorkSafe Tasmania — WorkSafe Tasmania