004_ACC_April_2016

BACK
Except for first week compensation, these kinds
of motor vehicle accident injuries will be funded
from the Motor Vehicle Account, not from the Work
Account (see under ‘Motor Vehicle Account’ heading).
Heart attacks and strokes
Cardio-vascular or cerebro-vascular episodes (heart
attacks or strokes) are work-related if caused by
physical effort or physical strain experienced by the
employee in the course of employment. The physical
effort or strain will be excessive or abnormal for the
particular employee, even though another employee
would not have found it too great.
Medical treatment of
work-related injury
Treatment for a work-related injury where the
treatment results in an injured employee suffering
further injury, (the injury is a treatment injury as
per section 32), will also be treated as a work injury.
This not only applies to hospital treatment but to
treatment given by any registered health professional
such as an occupational health nurse acting in the
workplace on the employer’s behalf.
Gradual process, disease,
or infection
Gradual process, disease, or infection resulting in
injury will be work-related if the employment involves
or used to involve exposure to certain agents, dust,
compounds, substances or radiation, and the disease
contracted is one of the occupational diseases listed in
Schedule 2 of the Act (set out in the appendix to these
guidelines). It will also be work related if the employee
is employed in an occupation, industry, or process
described in Schedule 2. An employee who contracts
such a disease while working (or having worked) in an
industry or occupation where listed substances are
used, or where the disease is known to occur, does
not have to establish that it was caused by the work
performed (see below). The fact that the employee
worked in such circumstances is sufficient to put the
disease into the ‘work-related’ category. Under section
30(4A) cover will only exist if the exposure occurred in
New Zealand or the person was ordinarily resident in
New Zealand when the exposure occurred.
Other gradual process injuries and infections need
to meet certain criteria to be considered work related.
There are two different tests, depending on when the
injury occurred.
INJURIES OCCURRING BETWEEN 1 AUGUST
2008 AND 30 JUNE 2010
The employment task must have (or have had) a
particular property or characteristic causing, or
contributing to the cause of the personal injury. For
the period between 1 August 2008 and 30 June 2010,
the claimant must establish that it is more likely the
personal injury was caused by the employment tasks
or environment, than by their non-employment
activities or environment.
However, despite that threshold being reached,
the Corporation has the discretion to decline the
claim if the Corporation establishes the risk of
suffering the personal injury is not significantly
greater for persons who:
• perform that employment task than
for persons who do not, or
• are employed in that type of environment
than for persons who are not
INJURIES OCCURRING BEFORE 1 AUGUST
2008, OR AFTER 1 JULY 2010
For gradual process injuries which occurred before
1 August 2008, or after 1 July 2010, a more stringent
test must be satisfied for the injury to be considered
work related. There is the same requirement that the
employment task must have (or have had) a particular
property or characteristic causing, or contributing to
the cause of, the personal injury. However this must
be a property or characteristic not found to any great
extent in employee’s non-employment activities
or environment. For the gradual process injury to
be considered work related it must be shown that
the risk of suffering the gradual process injury is
significantly greater for persons who:
• perform that employment task than
for persons who do not, or
• are employed in that type of environment
than for persons who are not.
Injuries that can be attributed to workplace airconditioning
systems and passive smoking are
classified as work-related gradual process injuries.
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