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WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 76

76 .         Agreement as to compensation etc., registration and effect of memorandum of

        (1)         Subject to section 92(h), where the amount of compensation under this Act has been ascertained, or any weekly payment varied, or any other matter decided under this Act by agreement, or any agreement, whether purporting to be made under this Act or not, has been entered into whereby a worker agrees to compound any claim or right to compensation under this Act, a memorandum thereof shall be sent, in manner prescribed, by any party interested, to the Director, who, subject to subsection (2a), shall, on being satisfied as to its genuineness, and, where the agreement provides for the payment of compensation pursuant to an election under section 24, 24A, 31C or 31E, as to the adequacy of the amount thereof, record such memorandum in a special register without fee, and thereupon the memorandum shall for all purposes be enforceable as an award or order made by an arbitrator.

        (2)         No such memorandum shall be recorded before 7 days after the despatch by the Director of notice to the parties interested.

        (2a)         The Director cannot, under this section, record a memorandum of an agreement for the payment of a lump sum in redemption of the liability to pay compensation unless the Director is satisfied that the worker is aware of the consequences of the recording of the memorandum.

        (3)         No agreement between a worker and an employer has any force or validity if it exempts the employer wholly or partially from any liability for compensation to which the worker is or may subsequently become entitled under this Act, and notwithstanding any such agreement, a worker may recover from his employer any compensation to which he is, or subsequently becomes, so entitled, but the foregoing provisions of this subsection have no application to an agreement for the redemption of the liability to pay compensation if a memorandum of the agreement has been duly recorded under this section.

        (4)         Where a worker seeks to record a memorandum of agreement between his employer and himself for the payment of compensation under this Act, and the employer proves that the worker has in fact returned to work and is no longer incapacitated, and objects to the recording of such memorandum, the memorandum shall only be recorded, if at all, on such terms as an arbitrator, under the circumstances, may think just.

        (5)         The Director may at any time rectify the register.

        (6)         A memorandum received for registration shall be examined as to —

            (a)         the genuineness of the agreement; and

            (b)         the adequacy of the amount of any compensation pursuant to an election under section 24, 24A, 31C or 31E payable under the agreement,

                and if it appears to the Director as the result of such examination or as the result of any information which the Director considers sufficient that a redemption agreement or an agreement as to the amount of compensation payable to the worker or to a person under any legal disability or to dependants, ought not to be registered by reason of the agreement having been obtained by fraud or undue influence or other improper means, or by reason that the amount of compensation pursuant to an election under section 24, 24A, 31C or 31E payable under the agreement is inadequate or excessive, the Director shall refuse to record the memorandum of the agreement sent for registration, and in that case shall refer the matter to the Registrar who shall allocate it to an arbitrator to make such order (including an order as to any sum already paid under the agreement) as the arbitrator thinks just.

        (7)         For the purpose of carrying out his duties under subsection (6) the Director may, by notice in writing, require the attendance before him of the parties to the agreement and interrogate them in relation to the agreement and where the medical opinion of a medical practitioner is material and relevant to the question of the adequacy of the amount of compensation pursuant to an election under section 24, 24A, 31C or 31E payable under the agreement, the Director may require the employer to have the worker examined by a medical practitioner nominated by the Director, at the expense of the employer, in any case where the Director is of the opinion that a report from such medical practitioner will assist him in determining the matter of the adequacy or inadequacy of the amount of the compensation.

        (7a)         A medical practitioner nominated by the Director under subsection (7) to examine a worker who has made an election under section 31C in respect of an impairment that is not AIDS must be an approved medical specialist.

        (8)         An arbitrator may, upon application being made by either party within 6 months after a memorandum of an agreement as to the redemption of the liability to pay compensation for an injury by a lump sum, or of an agreement as to the amount of compensation payable to a person under any legal disability, or to dependants, has been recorded in the register, order that the record be removed from the register on proof to the arbitrator’s satisfaction that the agreement was obtained by fraud or undue influence or other improper means, or that the amount of compensation pursuant to an election under section 24, 24A, 31C or 31E payable under the agreement is inadequate or excessive, and may make such order (including an order as to any sum already paid under the agreement) as under the circumstances the arbitrator thinks just.

        (9)         Where a memorandum has been recorded under this section the Director shall without fee issue a certificate of the memorandum and the recording on application by any party concerned.

        (10)         Subject to this Act the certificate is evidence of the subject matter referred to in the certificate before any court or other tribunal or person in respect of proceedings to enforce compliance with the subject matter of the memorandum and for all other purposes under this Act.

        [Section 76 amended: No. 48 of 1993 s. 28(1) and 38; No. 33 of 1999 s. 6; No. 34 of 1999 s. 17; No. 74 of 2003 s. 134(2); No. 42 of 2004 s. 62 and 146; No. 31 of 2011 s. 27.]



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