Safety Matters - Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW

Reasonable Efforts to Return to Work –
What the Law Says
The Workplace Injury Management & Workers Compensation Act 1998
(WIMWCA) states that
“an injured worker must make all reasonable efforts to return to work
with his or her pre-injury employer”.
It then goes on to state that
“If a worker fails unreasonably to comply with a requirement of this
Chapter after being requested to do so by the insurer, the worker has no
entitlement to weekly payments of compensation during any period that
the failure continues”.
Insurers advise an injured worker, in writing, that they intend to stop
benefits. In this notice they must advise the worker what they must do in
order to have payments reinstated.
It should be noted that the legislations says “The resumption of weekly
benefits does not entitle the worker to weekly payments for the period in
respect of which the worker had no entitlement to weekly payments”.
Discontinuing weekly payments for Partial Incapacity
The last legislative section of note regarding weekly benefits is Sec 52A WCA
titled “Discontinuation of weekly payments for partial incapacity after 2
years”. This section was introduced in 1995 and amended in 1998.
This section applies to workers who have:
• already received at least 104 weeks of partial incapacity benefits (i.e. Sec 38
and/or Sec 40)
and
• who are not seeking suitable employment OR
• have unreasonably rejected suitable employment OR
• have not been able to find suitable employment “primarily because of the state of
the labour market” (rather than because of the effects of the worker’s injury).
A notice of discontinuation of payment must be sent to the worker.
The section states “A worker is not entitled to a resumption of payment
of weekly compensation for partial incapacity for work once payment is
discontinued because of this section”.
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Safety Matters A Guide for Workplace OHS Representatives
SECTION THREE
RAIL
TRAM AND BUS
23
A Summary of Workers Compensation in NSW
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