Payment entitlements

A worker who is unable to work as a result of a work-related injury or disease is entitled, while incapacitated for work, and subject to producing medical evidence of incapacity, to weekly payments equal to whichever is the greater of:

the normal weekly earnings of the worker averaged over the 12 month period immediately preceding the commencement of the incapacity (normal earnings would include any regular allowances, but not travel or accommodation allowances. Overtime is excluded unless it is part of a regular pattern of employment) or
the worker’s ordinary-time rate of pay for the employment in which the worker was engaged immediately before the incapacity commenced.

In situations where the worker has been employed for less than 12 months before the incapacity, their entitlement to weekly payments may be calculated on the normal weekly earnings of another worker employed by the same employer on a similar basis. The Act also provides a formula for calculating the weekly payment where the a worker has, prior to incapacity, been engaged in more than one job; for example, someone employed in both a full-time and a part-time job, or in several part-time positions.

Weekly payments are made as follows:

100% of the weekly payment for the first 13 weeks of incapacity following the date of initial incapacity
85% of the weekly payment for the period of incapacity exceeding 13 weeks but not exceeding 78 weeks from the date of initial incapacity
80% of the weekly payment for the period of incapacity exceeding 78 weeks but not exceeding nine years from the date of initial incapacity.

These changes in payments are referred to as “stepdowns”.