Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

WORK HEALTH ACT - SECT 49

49. Interpretation for Part V

(1) In this Part, unless the contrary intention appears -

"accredited vocational rehabilitation provider" means a person, Agency or body approved under section 50(1);

"dependant", in relation to a worker, means -

(a) a spouse or other member of the worker's family;

(b) a person to whom the worker stood in loco parentis or who stood in loco parentis to the worker;

(c) a grandchild of the worker,

who was wholly or in part dependent on his or her earnings at the date of his or her death or who would but for the worker's incapacity due to the injury resulting in his or her death, have been so dependent;

"family", in relation to an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, includes all persons who are members of the person's family according to the customs and traditions of the particular community of Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islanders with which the person identifies;

"hospital treatment", in relation to a worker, means treatment at a hospital within or outside the Territory, and includes his or her maintenance as a patient at the hospital, the provision or supply by the hospital of nursing attendants, medicine, medical or surgical supplies or other curative apparatus and all other ancillary services;

"medical, surgical and rehabilitation treatment", in relation to a worker, includes -

(a) an attendance, examination or treatment on or of the worker by -

(i) a person who has a right of practice under the Health Practitioners Act in the category of health care practice of medicine, dentistry, Aboriginal health work, chiropractic, occupational therapy, osteopathy, physiotherapy or psychology;

(ii) a person who has a right of practice under a corresponding law of a State or another Territory of the Commonwealth in one of those categories of health care practice; or

(iii) if there is no such corresponding law - a person providing an attendance, examination or treatment which, if provided or carried out at the place where the person normally provides services, would be recognised for compensation purposes under a law providing for compensation to injured workers in that place;

(b) the provision of a certificate by a person referred to in paragraph (a) required by the worker, a dependant of the worker or the worker's legal personal representative for a purpose relating to the operation of this Part;

(c) the provision for the worker of -

(i) prostheses;

(ii) crutches and other walking aids; or

(iii) spectacles,

including the necessary repair, adjustment or replacement of those items;

(d) in relation to a claim under this Part, the repair or replacement of items of the kind referred to in paragraph (c) which were damaged or destroyed at the time of the injury giving rise to the claim;

(e) the provision of medical or surgical aids to rehabilitation or of curative appliances, apparatus or materials for the worker, otherwise than when a patient is in a hospital; and

(f) the provision of medicines or curative apparatus, appliances or materials for workers by a person who has a right of practice under the Health Practitioners Act in the category of health care practice of pharmacy or under a corresponding law of a State or another Territory of the Commonwealth in that category of health care practice;

"medical practitioner" includes a medical practitioner who has a right of practice under a law of a State or another Territory;

"mental stress" means anxiety, depression or other mental condition that affects a person's psychological, emotional or physical well-being;

"normal weekly earnings", in relation to a worker, means -

(a) subject to paragraphs (b), (c) and (d), remuneration for the worker's normal weekly number of hours of work calculated at his or her ordinary time rate of pay;

(b) in the case of a worker who had entered into concurrent contracts of service with 2 or more employers under which he or she worked full-time at one time for one employer and part-time at another time for one or more other employers - the gross remuneration for the worker's normal weekly number of hours of work calculated at his or her ordinary time rate of pay in respect of his or her full-time employment;

(c) in the case of a worker who had entered into concurrent contracts of service with 2 or more employers under which he or she worked part-time at one time for one employer and part-time at another time for one or more other employers -

(i) the gross remuneration for the worker's normal weekly number of hours of work calculated at his or her ordinary time rate of pay in respect of both or all of his or her part-time employments; or

(ii) the gross remuneration that would have been payable to the worker if he or she had been engaged full-time in the part-time employment in which he or she usually was engaged for the more or most hours of employment per week at the date of the relevant injury,

whichever is the lesser; or

(d) where -

(i) by reason of the shortness of time during which the worker has been in the employment of his or her employer, it is impracticable at the date of the relevant injury to calculate the rate of relevant remuneration in accordance with paragraph (a), (b) or (c); or

(ii) subject to paragraph (b) or (c), the worker is remunerated in whole or in part other than by reference to the number of hours worked,

the average gross weekly remuneration which, during the 12 months immediately preceding the date of the relevant injury, was earned by the worker during the weeks that he or she was engaged in paid employment;

"normal weekly number of hours of work" means -

(a) in the case of a worker who is required by the terms of his or her employment to work a fixed number of hours, not being hours of overtime other than where the overtime is worked in accordance with a regular and established pattern, in each week - the number of hours so fixed and worked; or

(b) in the case of a worker who is not required by the terms of his or her employment to work a fixed number of hours in each week - the average weekly number of hours, not being hours of overtime other than where the overtime is worked in accordance with a regular and established pattern, worked by him or her during the period actually worked by him or her in the service of his or her employer during the 12 months immediately preceding the date of the relevant injury;

"nursing service" means a nursing service provided by a registered nurse who has a right of practice under the Health Practitioners Act otherwise than at a hospital or as a member of the nursing staff of a hospital;

"ordinary time rate of pay" means -

(a) in the case of a worker who is remunerated in relation to an ordinary time rate of pay fixed by the terms of his or her employment - the time rate of pay so fixed; or

(b) in the case of a worker -

(i) who is remunerated otherwise than in relation to an ordinary time rate of pay so fixed, or partly in relation to an ordinary time rate of pay so fixed and partly in relation to any other manner; or

(ii) where no ordinary time rate of pay is so fixed for a worker's work under the terms of his or her employment,

the average time rate of pay, exclusive of overtime other than where the overtime is worked in accordance with a regular and established pattern, earned by him or her during the period actually worked by him or her in the service of his or her employer during the period of 12 months immediately preceding the date of the relevant injury;

"proceeding" means a claim before the Court for compensation or a matter or question incidental to such a claim;

"spouse", in relation to a person, includes a de facto partner of the person;

"worker", in relation to an employer, includes a person formerly employed as a worker by the employer where the worker became eligible for compensation in respect of an injury arising out of or in the course of employment with that employer.

(1A) For the purposes of the definition of 'normal weekly earnings' in subsection (1), a worker's remuneration does not include superannuation contributions made by the employer.

(1B) Subsection (1A) is taken to have come into operation on
1 January 1987.

(2) For the purposes of the definition of "normal weekly earnings" and "ordinary time rate of pay" in subsection (1), a worker's remuneration includes an over-award payment, climate allowance, district allowance, leading hand allowance, qualification allowance, shift allowance (where shift work is worked in accordance with a regular and established pattern) and service grant, but does not include any other allowance.

(3) In determining whether overtime is worked in accordance with a regular and established pattern for the purposes of the definitions of "normal weekly number of hours of work" and "ordinary time rate of pay" in subsection (1), or shift work is worked in accordance with a regular and established pattern for the purpose of the definitions of "normal weekly earnings" and "ordinary time rate of pay" as referred to in subsection (2) -

(a) regard shall be had to the overtime or shift work, as the case may be, worked by a worker in his or her employment with his or her employer at the time of the relevant injury during the period of 6 months immediately preceding the date of the injury; or

(b) where the worker has been employed by his or her employer at the time of the relevant injury for less than 6 months, regard shall be had to the overtime or shift work, as the case may be, worked by the worker during the period of that employment and whether, in the normal course of that employment, he or she would have worked overtime or shift work had he or she not been injured.