004_ACC_April_2016

BACK
The employer at whose workplace the injury
occurred also pays 80 per cent of any earnings
the employee has lost from any other job, if the
employee has more than one job.
In calculating first week compensation it is presumed
that the amount lost because of incapacity is the
difference between earnings in the 7 days before the
incapacity commenced and earnings in the first week
of incapacity. For example, if an employee earned
$500 in the 7 days prior to incapacity and $100 in the
week of incapacity, the amount lost, and therefore
payable by the employer, is 80 per cent of $400.
However, this presumption can be rebutted by proof
to the contrary, as in the case of a shift worker injured
on the first day of a new shift after several days when
not required to work. Earnings in the previous seven
days will be less than the employee would normally
receive, making the presumption inappropriate.
Evidence of the employee’s situation will rebut
the presumption so that first week compensation
can then be calculated as 80 per cent of shift work
earnings. Similarly, a part-time employee may not
have worked and earned as much as usual in the 7
days prior to incapacity. Here, too, evidence of the
employee’s usual pattern of earnings can be used to
rebut the presumption.
Before paying first week compensation the
employer may reasonably require the employee
to produce independent evidence of the personal
injury, for example, by providing a certificate from
a registered health professional whom the employer
nominates and pays for.
The term registered health professional covers:
chiropractors, clinical dental technicians, medical
laboratory technologists, medical radiation
technologists, midwives, nurses, occupational
therapists, optometrists, pharmacists,
physiotherapists, podiatrists, and registered
medical practitioners all of whom can provide
initial certificates of injury. However, for some later
purposes, for example, when the Corporation is
determining whether someone is incapacitated
for work (see below), the employee will need to get
a certificate from a registered medical practitioner
or nurse practitioner.
First week compensation is payable for the purposes
of the Act itself, the Income Tax Act, the Tax
Administration Act, the laws relating to insolvency,
receivership and the liquidation of companies, and
section 131 of the Employment Relations Act (relating
to wage arrears).
It is an offence for an employer not to pay first week
compensation. The maximum fine is $500.
Entitlement to weekly compensation
Weekly compensation is payable to any eligible
person who was an earner when the personal injury
was suffered or who was on unpaid parental leave.
To determine eligibility the Corporation must decide
whether the injured employee cannot, because of
the injury, continue to do the work he or she was
doing when the injury occurred. An employee who
cannot continue is considered ‘incapacitated’ for
employment. This also applies to self-employed
people and to anyone who has applied to purchase
weekly compensation while still employed, or within
one month of ceasing employment, to cover a period
when not employed—as anyone continuously
employed for the previous 12 months is entitled to do.
In determining incapacity, the Corporation must
consider a registered medical practitioners or
nurse practitioner’s assessment. It may also obtain
professional, technical, specialised, or other advice
from some other appropriate person.
The Corporation may from time to time reconsider
the situation of an employee who is receiving weekly
compensation. If it decides the employee is no longer
incapacitated, entitlement to weekly compensation
will be lost three months after the Corporation has
notified the employee of its decision.
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