Western Australian Current Acts

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WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 57B

57B .         Claims procedure where employer is self-insured or uninsured

        (1)         This section applies where —

            (a)         a claim for compensation by way of weekly payments for total or partial incapacity has been made on an employer in accordance with section 178(1)(b); and

            (b)         the worker suffering the injury has served on the employer a certificate signed by a medical practitioner —

                  (i)         in or to the effect of the form prescribed containing substantially the information sought in the form; or

                  (ii)         to the effect that the worker is unfit for work because of a recurrence of an injury in respect of which a certificate as referred to in subparagraph (i) has previously been served,

                and the employer (whether in contravention of section 160, in accordance with an exemption under section 164, as a result of the insurer declining to indemnify the employer, or otherwise) is not indemnified by a policy of insurance against his liability to pay the compensation claimed.

        (2)         In the circumstances mentioned in subsection (1), an employer must, before the expiration of 17 days after those circumstances arose —

            (a)         if liability to make the weekly payments claimed is accepted, subject to subsection (6), make the first of those weekly payments; or

            (b)         subject to section 75, give the worker notice, in accordance with section 57BA and the regulations, that liability is disputed in respect of all or any of the weekly payments claimed; or

            (c)         give the Director and the worker notice, in accordance with section 57BA and the regulations, that a decision as to whether or not liability is to be accepted in respect of the weekly payments claimed is not able to be made within the time allowed by this subsection.

        Penalty: $1 000.

        (2a)         If within 10 days after the Director is notified under subsection (2)(c) that a decision is not able to be made, the employer has not —

            (a)         if liability to make the weekly payments claimed is accepted, notified the Director accordingly and, subject to subsection (6), made the first of those weekly payments; or

            (b)         subject to section 75, notified the worker and the Director that liability is disputed in respect of all or any of the weekly payments claimed and of the reasons why it is disputed,

                the claim by the worker shall be deemed to be disputed.

        (2b)         When an insurer declines to indemnify an employer against the employer’s liability to pay the compensation claimed, the insurer shall, before the expiration of 14 days after the claim was made by the employer, notify WorkCover WA to that effect and of the reasons for declining to indemnify.

        Penalty: $1 000.

        (3)         Where the Director has requested an employer to do so, the employer shall cause each notification to the Director under subsection (2)(c) to be accompanied by a means specified by the Director for conveying to the Director, in a machine-readable form so specified, the information contained in the notification.

        Penalty: $1 000.

        (4)         Where an employer fails to comply with subsection (2) upon a worker claiming compensation by way of weekly payments under this Act, the worker is, by force of this subsection, entitled to the weekly payments claimed and the employer shall, subject to subsection (6), forthwith make the first of those weekly payments, but the employer may apply for a determination under subsection (5).

        (5)         On an application under subsection (4) an arbitrator may determine the entitlement that the worker would have had but for the operation of subsection (4), and thereupon the entitlement of the worker is as so determined but without affecting his entitlement under subsection (4) in respect of the period before that determination.

        (6)         An employer is not required under subsection (2) or (4) to make any weekly payment unless —

            (a)         the worker has complied with the requirements of sections 178 and 179; or

            (b)         on an application made under section 58, an arbitrator has ordered the commencement of weekly payments under this section notwithstanding that those requirements have not been complied with.

        (7)         After the first of the weekly payments, subsequent weekly payments to which a worker is entitled shall be made on an employer’s usual pay days.

        (8)         An employer who fails to make a weekly payment by the due date under subsection (2), (4) or (7) commits an offence.

        Penalty for each weekly payment not made when due: a fine of $2 000.

        [Section 57B inserted: No. 96 of 1990 s. 8; amended: No. 72 of 1992 s. 7; No. 48 of 1993 s. 28(1) and 35; No. 34 of 1999 s. 12; No. 42 of 2004 s. 42, 146, 147, 150 and 154(4); No. 31 of 2011 s. 91.]



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