Western Australian Current Regulations Western Australian Current Regulations[r. 101]
(1) Under the
Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 an employer must
obtain from a licensed insurer a workers compensation policy for the full
amount of the following liabilities of the employer that arise in respect of
employment during the period of insurance —
(a) any
liability of the employer that arises under the Act to pay compensation or
make any other payment in respect of an injury to or the death of a worker;
(b) any
liability of the employer to pay damages in respect of an injury to or the
death of a worker if the employer is liable to pay compensation under the Act
in respect of the injury or death, other than an injury to or the death of a
deemed worker (as defined in section 200 of the Act) of the employer.
(2) The words
“we”, “us” and “our” in this policy refer
to [insert name of insurer], which is a licensed insurer.
(3) The words
“you” and “your” in this policy refer to the employer
named in the Schedule to this policy.
(4) You have applied
for the issue or renewal of a policy and provided the required information to
be covered by this policy upon payment of an agreed premium. That application
and the supporting information, including the remuneration declaration,
contain the particulars and statements which the employer and insurer agree
are the basis of this policy and form part of this policy.
(5) This policy covers
only the employer entity described in the Schedule unless details of another
entity have been supplied to us and we have confirmed its acceptance of the
extension of the policy.
(6) We have agreed to
issue this policy to cover you for the policy period, on the following terms.
The premium that you must pay us and the policy period are set out in the
Schedule. The premium is subject to adjustment as set out in the conditions
below.
The following
definitions apply in this policy —
Act means the
Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 as amended from time
to time, including any rules and regulations under the Act;
act of terrorism has the meaning given in
section 287(1) of the Act;
contractor means any individual contracted by you
for the performance of work of a kind described in section 12(2)(c) of
the Act;
damages has the meaning given in section 200
of the Act;
injury has the meaning given in section 6 of
the Act;
policy —
(a)
means a workers compensation policy as defined in section 202(1) of the
Act; and
(b)
includes —
(i)
this policy; and
(ii)
the Schedule to this policy; and
(iii)
the policy application; and
(iv)
the cover note; and
(v)
any endorsement, whether specified in the Schedule or in
a separate document; and
(vi)
any remuneration estimate, declaration or supporting
information required by the Act pertaining to the policy or the policy period;
policy period means —
(a) a
period of insurance beginning on the start date shown in the Schedule and
ending on the end date shown in the Schedule; and
(b) any
period for which the policy is renewed;
remuneration has the meaning given in —
(a)
section 200 of the Act; and
(b) any
regulations, rules or guidelines issued by WorkCover WA;
Schedule means the document attached to this
policy titled Policy Schedule;
worker —
(a) has
the meaning given in sections 12(2) and 13 to 15 of the Act; and
(b)
means a working director, as defined in section 16 of the Act, if the
issue or renewal of this policy under Part 5 of the Act is on the basis
that the working director is a worker; and
(c)
means a person who —
(i)
under section 215 of the Act is a worker for whom
the principal and the contractor are taken to be the employers; or
(ii)
it has been determined works for you under an avoidance
arrangement within the meaning of section 222 of the Act.
[Clause 2 amended: SL 2024/89
r. 7.]
3 . Liability for compensation
If you are liable
under the Act to pay compensation or any other payment in respect of an injury
or death to a worker from employment during the period of insurance, we will
indemnify you against that payment and, in addition, will pay all reasonable
costs and expenses you incur with our written consent.
We will indemnify you
against any damages you are liable to pay, and any reasonable costs and
expenses you incur for that liability with our written consent, subject to any
limits and exclusions authorised under the Act and the conditions of this
policy if —
(a) you
are liable to pay damages in respect of an injury or death to a worker from
employment during the period of insurance; or
(b) the
worker is entitled to receive compensation under the Act and recover damages
(subject to Part 7 Division 3 of the Act) from you in respect of the
injury or would have been entitled to so recover from you in respect of the
injury if the worker had not died.
5 . Policy limit on liability to pay damages
We will not pay more
than the agreed amount specified in the Schedule for liability to pay damages
(an amount that is not less than an aggregate amount of damages exceeding
$50 million) arising out of all claims in respect of a single event,
regardless of how many workers are injured.
6 . Exclusions to insurer’s requirement to
indemnify employer against liability to pay compensation or damages
We will not indemnify
you for any liability to pay compensation or damages in respect
of —
(a) a
declared act of terrorism (see section 289 of the Act); or
(b) a
claim directly or indirectly occasioned by any event happening through or in
consequence of war, invasion, acts of foreign enemies, hostilities whether war
is declared or not, civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection or military
or usurped power (see regulation 100(2)); or
(c) any
circumstance provided for in section 241 of the Act that permits us to
refuse to indemnify you against liability for compensation or damages, or
both.
7 . Exclusion to insurer’s requirement to
indemnify employer against liability to pay damages
In addition to the
exclusions listed in clause 6, we will not indemnify you against
liability to pay damages —
(a) to a
person other than the worker who suffered the injury, unless the person is a
person to whom damages are due and payable, or may be claimed, in respect of
the definition of damages in section 200 of the Act; or
(b) in
relation to a claim brought in respect of an injury occurring outside
Australia (see regulation 100(3)(a)); or
(c) in
relation to a claim brought against you outside Australia (see
regulation 100(3)(b)); or
(d) to a
person who —
(i)
under section 215 of the Act, you, as the principal,
are taken to be the employer of; or
(ii)
is found to work for you under an avoidance arrangement,
within the meaning of section 222 of the Act;
or
(e) that
are exemplary or punitive damages (see regulation 100(4)(a)).
The following
conditions apply to the insurance cover provided by this policy —
(a)
misrepresentation — subject to section 240 of the Act, the
proposal for the insurance, and any other information supplied to us by you or
on your behalf, form the basis of this policy and must contain no
misrepresentations, whether unintentional or otherwise;
(b)
written notice — every notice or communication given to us under
this policy must be delivered in writing, which may be in electronic form, to
the office from which the policy was issued;
(c)
notice of injury —
(i)
you must notify us of any injury as soon as practicable
after you (or your representative) receive information about the occurrence of
an injury or about any incapacity arising from an injury; and
(ii)
you must give us every written notice of claim or legal
proceedings, and information as to any verbal notice of claim or legal
proceedings, immediately after it is received by you;
(d)
litigation, settlement or admission of liability — you must not,
without our written authority, incur any litigation expense, or make any
payment, settlement or admission of liability, in respect of an injury to, or
claim made by, a worker;
(e)
defence of proceedings, subrogation and use of your name —
(i)
we are entitled to use your name in any legal proceedings
in respect of anything indemnified under this policy and to exercise any
rights you may have against anyone to recover any payments that we make on
your behalf; and
(ii)
we are entitled to be subrogated to all rights that you
may have against any persons who may be responsible in relation to a claim for
an injury covered by this policy and, when we require it, you must execute any
necessary documents to assist us in taking action in your name;
(f)
assistance — in respect of any injury, you must give us any
information, documents and assistance we request and otherwise cooperate with
us in the management, defence or settlement of any claim;
(g)
right of inspection —
(i)
after an injury to a worker, you must not, as far as
reasonably practicable, alter, repair or dispose of any works, machinery,
plant, tools or equipment involved in the injury, or documents pertaining to
the injury, without our consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld; and
(ii)
we may, at all reasonable times, inspect the works,
machinery, plant, tools, equipment and documents pertaining to the injury;
(h)
premium calculation — unless you have an adjustable premium policy,
the first premium and every renewal premium payable to us will be calculated
on the amount of the remuneration you estimate you will pay or be liable to
pay during the year following the issue or renewal of the policy, including
all amounts you estimate you will pay contractors;
(i)
adjustment of premium —
(i)
within 1 month after the expiry of the policy period
you must provide us with a statement of the aggregate amount of all
remuneration paid or payable by you in that year (including remuneration paid
to contractors) and, if required, the number of workers and contractors you
employed or engaged in that year; and
(ii)
unless you have an adjustable premium policy, if the
amount of the remuneration, the number of workers and contractors or the type
of business in which they were engaged differs from the information on which
the premium for that year was calculated, the premium will be adjusted and you
must pay a further premium to us or we will refund part of the premium to you,
subject to our retaining a customary minimum premium;
(j)
remuneration records — you must keep current and accurate records (
remuneration record ) of the names of, amounts paid to and dates of payments
to, your workers and contractors unless —
(i)
you are a principal with respect to remuneration paid to
contract workers employed by a contractor and the contractor holds a workers
compensation policy that extends to indemnifying the principal; and
(ii)
at the issue or renewal of a policy you provide details
of the workers compensation policy under which the principal is indemnified
(see section 221 of the Act);
(k)
inspection or audit of remuneration record — at any time, not
limited to the policy period, you must allow an officer authorised by us to
inspect your remuneration record and any other record given to us that is
relevant to the calculation of your premium or to arrange for an audit of
those records;
(l)
assignment — you must not assign your interest in this policy
without our written consent;
(m)
waiver — you must not rely on any waiver of any provision of this
policy unless we have confirmed the waiver to you in writing;
(n)
cancellation — if permitted by WorkCover WA to do so, we may cancel
this policy and, in that event —
(i)
you must provide us with an account of the remuneration
you have paid in the most recent year of the policy period up to the day of
cancellation; and
(ii)
we will adjust the premium as described above and refund
any unearned premium.