WorkCover Industry Classifications

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Every accident insurance policy is given a WorkCover industry code (WIC) when the policy is taken out. We use these WICs to classify your business, and to help us calculate an appropriate premium.

Your WIC is a factor in your experience based rating.

Each WIC has a corresponding premium rate, which is calculated using the claims cost performance of all businesses classified in that industry. A WIC’s rate is not necessarily linked to the perceived risk involved for workers in that industry—it is linked to actual claims experience.

ANZSIC

WICs are based on a national classification scheme published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics called the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). We use ANZSIC as a base for our own WIC codes.

Classification

WICs are not a comprehensive inventory of every business activity currently being performed in Queensland. If you have a particularly specialised type of business, you may be classified under a more general WIC.

When you set up an accident insurance policy with us, we determine what we believe is your whole-of-business activity. To do this, we may consider the following information:

  • your primary or predominant activity
  • which type of workers you pay the most wages to
  • the activity you hold yourself out as being able to perform
  • any other relevant information.

Sections three through nine of the Queensland Government Gazette outline how we must determine WICs for employers.

Multiple WICs for a policy

The Gazette states that we should allocate on WIC per policy. However, it does allow for more than one WIC if certain criteria are met:

  • you conduct more than one business activity
  • the activities operate from separate locations
  • the activities are not incident to each other
  • you operate a labour hire or group training business.

Changing your WIC

The WIC we first classify your policy under can change. If your business activity changes, or if you believe you are eligible for more than one WIC, call us on 1300 362 128 so we can review your WIC.

If you feel you’ve been misclassified, call us to discuss your business. If you’re still not satisfied with our classification, you can seek a review with Q-COMP (our regulator). If you would like more information about how to seek a review of your classification, please visit Q-COMP’s website at www.qcomp.com.au.