Important
If you or someone else at your workplace needs urgent medical treatment, attend to this first.
Some workplace injuries need to be reported to SafeWork NSW
Key steps
1. Notify your employer
You must inform your employer as soon as possible if you've suffered a work-related injury or illness and provide them with:
- the date and time of the injury, or the period over which the injury developed
- a description of how the injury or illness occurred
- a description of the injury
- if circumstances prevent you from informing your employer, you can contact their insurer directly - if you don't know who the insurer is, contact the Independent Review Office (IRO) on 13 94 76.
2. Employer to notify their insurer
An employer must report an injury to their insurer within 48 hours of becoming aware of the injury or illness.
For detailed information refer to Section 44 of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998.
3. Insurer to make contact
The insurer will make contact with you within 3 business days of being notified and provide a claim number.
Detailed information is available in the Workers Compensation Claims Management Guide.
Time limits for claiming
A workers compensation claim should be made within 6 months of the injury date or death.
This period can be extended under certain circumstances:
- up to 3 years post-accident if you were not in NSW or there is another reasonable cause
- claims related to death or serious and permanent impairment may be made after 3 years if there is a reasonable cause for the delay
- with SIRA approval, claims can still be made even if more than 3 years has passed since the incident.
If you become aware of your injury long after the accident, special arrangements might apply.
For advice on these situations, contact the insurer or call the Independent Review Office on 13 94 76 for more information.
Detailed information is available in the Workers Compensation Claims Management Guide.
Have you been injured at work?
Use this step-by-step online tool to help understand your weekly payments at different stages of your claim Understand your weekly paymentsClaims with uninsured employers
If your employer does not have workers compensation insurance, people with an injury can still make a claim by contacting EML, icare's appointed claims partner, on 13 77 22. EML will assist in making a claim.
EML may conduct investigations to help determine liability or seek further information.
These investigations are to determine:
- the actual employer who employed you
- whether the employer who employed you was uninsured
- whether you are a worker as defined by the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998
- whether the injury for which you are claiming compensation occurred while you were working for the nominated employer, and if the employment was a substantial contributing factor to the injury.
Detailed information is available in the Workers Compensation Claims Management Guide.
For more information, contact the Independent Review Office on 13 94 76.
Information for workers
An easy-to-read overview of the key steps for workers if there's been a work-related injury Key steps for workersMore information
Updated 1 August 2025