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Insurance chief should shut his big gob!

Now this is the sort of ignorant, profit-at-all-costs attitude I just so love about the far-thinking, forward looking leaders of Australian industry. Do I sound sarcastic enough?

How about this. A Northern Territory insurance boss has come out in the NT News and branded workplace stress as “fashionable”.

According to the report, TIO chief John Tsouroutis said some workers use stress as the latest in a line of conditions that hit Australian workers back in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tsouroutis, caring soul that he seems, has waved away exceptionally painful and debilitating conditions like bad back and Repetitive Strain Injury and has thrown doubt upon genuine claims by saying some workers cheated the system.

In fact, this great defender of insurance company profits went so far as to say – and I quote the newspaper report: "Stress claims are beginning to form a trend like bad back in the '70s and RSI in the '80s.

"There seems to be a fashionable new trend.

"We've had the decade of questionable back injuries, a decade of interesting RSI claims and now a decade of rather interesting stress claims.”

As someone who has done his back on occasions and has seen a lot of colleagues suffer excruciating RSI pain through trying to work against medical advice, I know what Tsouroutis is saying is utter ******* bollocks.

If stress cases are increasing and costing you profit, Mr NT guru, then it would mean that finally Australian management’s practice of working their employees into the ground – willing usually – is turning around to bite them on the arse.

Australians’ work longer hours than most nations, make appalling family sacrifices for their employer and, with the pressures of normal modern life, are increasingly burning out.

In fact even the blinkered vision of this deluded individual from the far north seems to grudgingly acknowledge: "I'm sure the majority are genuine, but it seems to be an area of doubt and some grey in the minority of cases. What concerns us is the increasing average claim size and the impacts of premiums for the whole community."

Even so, just by spewing out such cretinous garbage, this insurance salesman insults and sneers at every Australian worker who does umpteen hours of unpaid overtime.

Take my advice Tsouroutis – save yourself from RSI of the mouth and shut your gob!

If there is something that has really got up your nose, let Grumpy Old Coot know at grumpy@webwombat.com