Western Australian Current Acts

WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 16

16 .         Workers employed on some ships

        [(1)         deleted]

        (2)         This Act applies with the following modifications in respect of an injury occurring to a worker employed on a ship where under section 20 the worker’s employment is connected with this State —

            (a)         the notice of injury and the claim for compensation may, except where the person injured is the master, be served on the master of the ship as if he were the employer, but where the injury occurred and incapacity commenced on board the ship it is not necessary to give notice of the injury; and

            (b)         in the case of the death of the worker leaving no dependants, no compensation is payable if the owner of the ship is, under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 of the United Kingdom, liable to pay the expenses of burial; and

            (c)         where incapacity for work results from the injury, the owner of the ship may deduct from the payment due to the injured worker under this Act any expenses of maintenance which the owner of the ship is, under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 of the United Kingdom, liable to defray and has, in fact, defrayed; and

            (d)         any sum payable by way of compensation by the owner of a ship under this Act shall be paid in full notwithstanding anything in section 503 ³ of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 of the United Kingdom (which relates to the limitation of a ship-owner’s liability in certain cases of loss of life, injury, or damage), but the limitation on the owner’s liability imposed by that section shall apply to the amount recoverable by way of indemnity, under the provisions of this Act relating to remedies both against employer and stranger, as if the indemnity were damages for loss of life or injury; and

            (e)         section 174(2) and (3) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 of the United Kingdom (which relates to the recovery of wages of seamen lost with their ship), apply in respect of proceedings for the recovery of compensation by the dependants of a worker lost with his ship as they apply with respect to proceedings for the recovery of wages due to seamen and apprentices; and proceedings for the recovery of compensation are in such a case maintainable if the claim is made within 18 months of the date at which the ship is deemed to have been lost with all hands.

        [Section 16 amended: No. 44 of 1985 s. 8; No. 36 of 2004 s. 6 and 16; No. 42 of 2004 s. 147 and 148(3).]