004_ACC_April_2016

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BACK TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT While an employee is on <strong>ACC</strong> they remain employed despite their absence. An employer should maintain regular contact with the employee to keep updated on their progress and their expected date of return to work. When an employee has been incapacitated and unable to attend work for an extended period of time due to an injury an employer may have to assess the employee’s on-going employment with the Company. An employee should first be given a reasonable opportunity to recover and any decision to terminate their employment should be based on the business need to replace that employee. For further information, please refer to the section on Incapacity/ Long Term Illness in the Employer Guide on discipline and termination and contact the AdviceLine Team or your Business Central Employment Relations Consultant for further advice. DEFINITIONS Accident ‘Accident’ means: • a specific event or series of events involving the application of a force (including gravity) or resistance external to the human body, or the sudden movement of the body to avoid such an external force or resistance, or involves a twisting movement of the body, other than a gradual process; • the inhalation or oral ingestion of any solid, liquid, gas or foreign object on a specific occasion, other than the inhalation or ingestion of a virus, bacterium, protozoa or fungus, unless that inhalation or ingestion is the result of a criminal act of a person other than the injured person; • a burn or exposure to radiation rays of any kind, on a specific occasion, not including a burn or exposure caused by exposure to the elements (sunburn, for example); • the absorption of any chemical through the skin within a defined period of time not exceeding one month; • any exposure to the elements or to extremes of temperature or environment, within a defined period of time not exceeding one month that: for a continuous period of more than one month results in any restriction or lack of ability preventing the performance of an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for that person; or causes death. ‘Accident’ does not include: • any of the above occurrences if they are treatment given: • in New Zealand by, or at the direction of, a registered health professional; or • outside New Zealand by, or at the direction of, a person who has qualifications the same or equivalent to those of a registered health professional; or • any ecto-parasitic infestation (such as scabies), unless it is work-related; or • the contraction of any disease carried by an arthropod as an active vector (such as malaria resulting from a mosquito bite), unless it is work-related. The fact that someone has suffered a personal injury is not of itself to be construed as an indication or presumption that it was caused by an accident. Employee ‘Employee’ means: A natural person who receives or is entitled to receive— • any amount that is treated as income from employment as defined in paragraph (a) of the definition of income from employment in section OB 1 of the Income Tax Act 1994; or • any salary, wages or other gross income to which section OB 2(2) of the Income Tax Act 1994 applies. (Income from employment is essentially salary or wages and any extra emoluments. It also includes accident compensation payments.) 30
BACK Employer ‘Employer’ means: a person who pays, or is liable to pay— • any amount that, in relation to any other person, is treated as income from employment, as defined in paragraph (a) of the definition of income from employment in section OB 1 of the Income Tax Act 1994; and • any salary, wages or other gross income to which section OB 2(2) of the Income Tax Act 1994 applies; but • does not include, for the purpose of Part 6 of the Accident Compensation Act, (‘Management of the Scheme’), a person who is an employer solely by reason of any of paragraphs (f), (g), (h), (i), (ia), (ib), or (iba) of the definition of salary or wages in section OB 1 of the Income Tax Act 1994. (In other words, the employer is not required to pay the employee’s tax on earnings-related compensation payments (other than first week compensation) or any other compensation payment made to an injured employee. The exception is where an employer has entered into an agreement with the Corporation to provide injured employees with their entitlements. This can be done either by becoming an accredited employer or by entering into a reimbursement agreement which means that the employer pays compensation entitlements to the injured employee and is reimbursed by the Corporation.) Incapacity For the purposes of determining incapacity, incapacity means: • in the case of an earner or someone on unpaid parental leave, determining whether that person is unable, because of injury, to engage in employment in which he or she was employed when the injury was suffered. The Corporation must also determine the incapacity for employment of someone deemed still to be an employee, because he or she was an employee within 14 days before incapacity commenced and would have been an employee within three months (or 12 months if a seasonal employee— confirmation required from the employer), is a potential employee, or has purchased the right to receive weekly compensation. Personal injury Personal injury means: •death; • physical injuries, including a strain or sprain; • mental injury suffered by someone as a consequence of his or her physical injuries; • mental injury caused by a criminal act (set out in the Act’s Schedule 3 and generally of a sexual nature); • work-related mental injury that is suffered by a person in certain circumstances (see under ‘Work—related mental injury’ above); • damage, (other than wear and tear) to dentures or prostheses (such as artificial limbs) that replace a part of the human body. • from 1 July 2010, any degree of hearing loss that is 6 per cent or more of binaural hearing loss caused by a personal injury as a result of: an accident to the person; a treatment injury; a consequence of treatment given to the person for another personal injury for which the person has cover; a personal injury caused by a workrelated gradual process disease or infection; a consequence of treatment given for a personal injury caused by a work- related gradual process disease or infection for which the person has cover; a cardio-vascular or cerebro- vascular episode that is a treatment injury suffered by the person; or a personal injury that is a cardio-vascular or cerebro- vascular episode. 31
Page 1 and 2: 1 ACCIDENT COMPENSATION Empowering
Page 3 and 4: VOCATIONAL INDEPENDENCE............
Page 5 and 6: BACK INTRODUCTION New Zealand has h
Page 7 and 8: BACK An employee who deliberately m
Page 9 and 10: BACK The employer at whose workplac
Page 11 and 12: BACK If an employee was in permanen
Page 13 and 14: BACK Holiday entitlements PUBLIC (S
Page 15 and 16: BACK Vocational rehabilitation The
Page 17 and 18: BACK Changing circumstances Vocatio
Page 19 and 20: BACK Claims must be lodged within 1
Page 21 and 22: BACK A review hearing must be condu
Page 23 and 24: BACK Once an appeal notice is recei
Page 25 and 26: BACK Because the experience rating
Page 27 and 28: BACK Employers are required to: •
Page 29: BACK COVER FOR NON-WORK RELATED PER
Page 33 and 34: BACK APPENDIX Occupational diseases

004_ACC_April_2016

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