Victorian Current Acts Victorian Current Acts(1) This section applies if a seasonal earner is injured in a transport accident and suffers a loss of earnings as a result of the injury.
(2) For the purposes of this section—
(a) a seasonal earner is a person who engages in one or more seasonal activities;
(b) seasonal activities are activities that occur on an annual basis but that only provide employment for most of the people engaged in them for less than 6 months in any 12 month period.
Example
Fruit-picking, skiing instruction, acting in a television series that is only in production for 5 months each year, acting in school holiday plays, operating a whale-watching boat, making Christmas puddings.
(3) For the purposes of sections 44 and 45, a seasonal earner may elect to be compensated under those sections during the period of entitlement on a week to week basis as if a reference in those sections to the earner's pre-accident weekly earnings was a reference in a particular week to the earnings the earner could reasonably have expected to earn in that week had the injury not occurred.
Note
This subsection enables a seasonal earner to elect to receive weekly loss of earnings payments on the same pattern that he or she was accustomed to before the injury, that is, for instance, higher payments in weeks in which he or she would normally have been working full time and no, or lower, payments in weeks when he or she would normally have been unemployed or working part time. If no election is made the earner will receive the same amount each week based on a weekly average of his or her earnings in the last 12 months (unless another provision of section 44 or 45 applies).
(4) An election under subsection (3)—
(a) must be made in writing and be given to the Commission within 14 days after the earner becomes entitled to receive any payment under section 44 or 45; and
(b) has effect for the remainder of the period of entitlement that applies in respect of the injury; and
(c) cannot be revoked once any payment under section 44 or 45 is made to the earner in accordance with the election.
(5) Despite subsection (4)(a), the Commission may waive the 14 day period referred to in that subsection if, in the opinion of the Commission, it is appropriate to do so in particular circumstances.
Note
This section only applies to a person who was injured in a transport accident that occurs on or after the date of commencement of section 9 of the Transport Accident (Amendment) Act 2004 —see section 187.
S. 45A inserted by No. 32/1988 s. 10, substituted by No. 84/1994 s. 31.