Is your industry classification right?

If that code is wrong, every premium you have paid since has been built on the wrong starting number.

How the class is meant to be decided

The WorkCover WA Industry Classification Order assigns every employer a premium rating classification, or PRC. The rule is short:

The relevant PRC corresponds to or most closely describes the employer's predominant business activity. The predominant business activity is the one with the largest aggregate remuneration paid to workers over the policy period.

WorkCover WA Industry Classification Order, 2nd edition, section 4

Read the second sentence again. Predominant is measured in wages. Not revenue, not headcount, not what the business calls itself, not what is first on the website. The largest share of what you paid your workers over the period.

The Order's own example:

Company A performs plumbing and tiling services. 70% of Company A's wages are for plumbing and 30% are for tiling services. The predominant business activity of Company A is plumbing services. Result: Company A will be assigned PRC 32310 (Plumbing Services).

Industry Classification Order, worked example

All of it, plumbing and tiling alike, at the plumbing rate. The minority activity does not get its own code.

Generally one class, and only two exceptions

The Order says there should generally be only one PRC for each employer, and names the two cases where that is not so:

1. more than one business activity and more than one business location
2. labour supply companies

Everything else is one code. If you are carrying several classes and you are not in one of those two cases, that is worth a look. If you are carrying one class and you think you should be in the first case, that is worth a look too.

More than one location: the test is stricter than people expect

Two conditions and then a five part test. You get separate classifications only if you operate more than one business activity, and each operates from separate and distinct geographical locations, and the activities are not incidental to each other, meaning all of the following:

• they operate independently of each other
• one does not provide essential support to the other
• goods produced or acquired by one are not used in the other
• workers engaged by the employer do not work across the different activities
• the activities do not share the same customers

The Order's example of a business that passes:

Company B operates two businesses: a petrol station and a café, located 20km apart. 80% of wages are for the café and 20% for the petrol station. Both operate from different shop fronts, are separate businesses in their own right, exist without each other, have workers independent of each other and have different customers. Result: both PRC 40000 Fuel Retailing and PRC 45110 Cafes and Restaurants. The aggregate wages of workers at each location are declared under each respective PRC.

Industry Classification Order, worked example

Note the last sentence, because it is the part that decides money. Two classes means the wages split between them by where the workers actually are, not in whatever proportion is convenient.

Most businesses that think they qualify fail on the fourth limb. Workers who move between the two activities sink it.

Head office and service entities

A common structure, and the Order deals with it directly.

Where an employer runs a head office, or sets up a separate service entity to provide administrative or clerical support solely to that employer, the service entity takes the classification of the business it supports. Not an office code.

Company C is a large construction company, PRC 30200 Non Residential Building Construction. They set up Company D to provide administration services to Company C and no other entity. The activities are incidental to each other, because Company D provides essential support solely to Company C. Result: Company D is assigned PRC 30200. The aggregate wages of workers in both companies are combined and declared under PRC 30200.

Industry Classification Order, worked example

And where the employer has more than one class, the support workers go to whichever of its classes carries the largest aggregate remuneration over the period. The Order's second example has a construction company with two unrelated classes, 70% of wages supporting the construction side, and the service entity lands there.

So separating your administration into its own company does not move those wages to an office rate. If it supports one business, it takes that business's class.

How a determination is actually made

The Order sets out six steps, and this is what a proper classification exercise follows rather than looking up a keyword.

1. Identify the likely divisions, subdivisions, groups and classes from the Order's own PRC list.
2. Where it is unclear, read the ANZSIC 2006 preambles and class descriptions, paying careful attention to exclusions and references.
3. Check whether any of the Western Australian variations apply. There are twelve of them, and they split classes that look identical but carry very different risk, such as oil and gas extraction on land against offshore, and gold mining above ground against underground.
4. Determine the predominant business activity under the coding rules, including the special rules for multiple locations and for labour supply.
5. Identify the aggregate remuneration paid to workers, noting that it may need to be declared under more than one PRC where the coding rules apply.
6. Assign the classification.

Steps 2 and 3 are where most errors live. A keyword that looks right at class level is often excluded by the preamble, and a Western Australian variation can move a rate substantially without changing the description much at all.

Why yours might be wrong

Nobody has to have done anything careless.

It was assigned from a description. At inception an underwriter had a few lines about what the business does, not a wages breakdown. The code was a reasonable reading of what they were given.

Businesses drift. A builder that mostly built houses ten years ago and mostly does commercial fit outs now has moved class without anyone filing anything. The test is measured each policy period, and nothing in the annual cycle re-tests it.

Wages move even when activities do not. The rule turns on the largest share of wages. A second activity that grows from 30% to 55% of payroll changes the answer, and payroll shares move quietly.

Structures change. A new entity, a service company, a site opening or closing all bear on the coding rules, and none of them announce themselves to your insurer.

What it is worth

Enough to be worth an afternoon. On the 2026/27 recommended rates the schedule runs from 0.25% of remuneration to 6.56%, and neighbouring trades are not close to each other.

A builder and the carpentry crew working on the same site sit almost four percentage points apart, because classification follows what each entity does, not where the work happens.

And it runs both ways. A class that is wrong can just as easily be costing you as saving you, and the one that is costing you is the one nobody finds, because a premium that seems high is usually blamed on claims.

If it is wrong, there is a formal path

WorkCover WA reviews industry classification on application, and that limb carries no threshold at all, unlike the premium limb. Any employer can ask, whatever the premium.

There are deadlines on it and they are short. The mechanism, what your insurer has to give you, and the one month cut off are all on the premium page. Why your premium changed

What we do

Work the classification from the Order's own steps, on your actual wages by activity, and tell you which class is right and why, with the provision it rests on cited. If that is the class you already have, you get that in writing, which is worth having.

Where it is not, you get the determination and the reasoning in a form you or your broker can put to your insurer.

What we do not do. We do not deal with your insurer, your broker or WorkCover WA on your behalf, and we do not lodge applications. We are not insurance brokers and we do not advise on which insurer or policy to choose.

Fees are fixed, agreed in writing before any work starts, and never a percentage of anything.