Direct links
 
Home → University Services → Occupational Health and Safety → OHS Legislation → Legislation - Workplace Injury Management & Workers Compensation

WORKPLACE INJURY MANAGEMENT & WORKERS COMPENSATION ACT 1998

The following is a WorkCover NSW summary to be posted up at workplaces. This summary is located on noticeboards throughout the University.

INDEX
Notice of Injury
Claim for Compensation
Workers Right to Information
Employer to take Claims Action
Commencement of Weekly Payments
Universitys' Workers Compensation Insurer

Notice of Injury
Notice of the injury should be given to the employer as soon as practicable after the injury happened and before the worker has voluntarily left the employment in which the worker was at the time of the injury.

The notice may be given orally, or in writing, to the employer, or any person designated for the purpose by the employer, or any person under whose supervision the worker is employed. If there is more than one employer, the notice may be given to any one of those employers.

The notice shall give the name and address of the person injured and shall state in ordinary language the cause of the injury and date on which the injury happened.

If notice in writing is given, it may be served by delivering it at, or sending it by post to, the residence or place of business of the person on whom it is to be served.

Notice of injury must be in writing if it is a loss or further loss of hearing and must be made in accordance with special requirements described by the regulations under the Act.

The employer must keep in some readily accessible place a register in which a worker may enter particulars of any injury received. That register must be in or to the effect of Form 4 in the Regulations under the Act.

Claim for Compensation
If compensation is claimed, the claim must be made within 6 months after the injury or accident happened, or in the case of death, within 6 months of death. However, the failure to make a claim within 6 months is not to be a bar to the recovery of compensation if the failure was occasioned by ignorance, mistake, absence from the State or other reasonable cause.

A claim for compensation must be made in writing and should be supported where appropriate by medical evidence. A claim for weekly compensation payments must be accompanied by a medical certificate in the approved form.

Worker's Right to Information
The worker is entitled to inquire of his or her employer the employer's name and address for the purpose of serving documents and the name and address of the employer's insurer (if the employer is not a self-insurer).

Employer to take Claims Action
An employer is guilty of an offence under the Workers' Compensation Act 1998 if the employer:

   
(a) fails to forward any claim for compensation or other documentation to the insurer within 7 days after receipt;
(b) fails, within 7 days, to furnish an insurer with information requested of the employer and in the employer's possession or reasonably obtainable by the employer;
(c) fails, as soon as practicable, to pay over compensation received from the insurer to the person entitled.

Commencement of Weekly Payments
Weekly payments of compensation accepted under Provisional Liability are to commence by the seventh day of a claim being made. If liability for the claim is disputed, the dispute can be referred to the Workers Compensation Commission.

My Workers' Compensation Insurer is:

Employers Mutual Ltd
53 Cleary Street
HAMILTON  NSW  2303