Death Benefits
If a work injury results in the worker’s death, his or her dependants are entitled to compensation.
When an injured worker dies leaving dependants who were wholly or partly dependent on the worker for financial support, the lump sum payment pursuant to section 25 of the 1987 Act is to be apportioned among those dependants.
If there are no dependants, the lump sum is paid to the legal personal representative of the deceased worker’s estate.
The amount is adjusted from time to time, and the relevant amount payable to the dependants is the amount in force as at the date of the worker’s death. As at 1 October 2016, the lump sum death benefit was $765,650.
In addition, weekly compensation is payable to any dependent children, at the rates specified in the Workers compensation benefits guide, as adjusted from time to time. As at 1 October 2016 the rate for each child was $137.10.
Note that the definition of a dependent child under this section is ‘a child of the worker who was wholly or partly dependent for support on the worker’.
Funeral expenses are payable by the insurer up to a prescribed maximum amount: section 26. From 5 August 2016 the maximum has been $15,000.
Claims and Injury Management
Claims and Injury Management
Prompt, well-managed intervention by an employer and its insurer immediately an injury is reported provides the best opportunity to minimise the injured worker’s absence from the workplace, and to promote a ‘durable’ return to employment.
The legislation emphasises the need for early intervention by requiring provisional payments of compensation to be made even though a formal claim has not been made by an injured worker. The obligation to commence workplace injury management applies even when a claim is disputed.
Apart from the statutory provisions mentioned in this Guide, you should also check the SIRA Guidelines for claiming workers compensation which commenced on 1 August 2016.
Notice of Injury
The procedures for an injured worker to give notice of injury are governed by sections 252 to 258 of the 1998 Act.
A worker must give notice of injury to the employer as soon as possible after the injury occurs and before the worker voluntarily resigns employment. If not, then the worker may not recover compensation unless:
- the employer has not been prejudiced by the failure to give notice, or
- the failure to give notice was occasioned by ignorance, mistake, absence from the State or other reasonable cause, or
- the employer had knowledge of the injury from another source, or
- the injury has been reported by the employer to the Authority in accordance with the Act.
The notice of injury can be given orally or in writing, and must state the name and address of the person injured, the cause of the injury and the date of the injury. If there is more than one employer potentially liable, notice need only be given to one of those employers.
If the particulars of injury are entered in a register of injuries as soon as possible after an injury happened, the entry is sufficient notice for the purposes of the Act.
In practice, very few workers are ever disqualified from recovering compensation just because of late notification of the claim.
Section 44 of the 1998 Act requires an employer to notify either the Authority or the employer’s insurer within 48 hours of receiving notice of injury. If notice is given to the insurer, the insurer must forward the notice to the Authority (and vice versa).
Clause 35 of the Workers Compensation Regulation 2016 explains how the employer may give notice of injury to the Authority or insurer. Notice can be by telephone, by ‘electronic communication’ or in writing. An employer must maintain a record of when the notification was given and the details of the injury. These records must be maintained for at least
5 years, and must be made available for inspection at the request of a SIRA inspector or a union representative.