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WORKERS REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION ACT 1988 - SECT 25 Liability of employers to compensate workers for injuries

WORKERS REHABILITATION AND COMPENSATION ACT 1988 - SECT 25

PART III - Entitlement to compensation Division 1 - Entitlement to compensation Liability of employers to compensate workers for injuries

(1)  If in any employment –
(a) a worker suffers an injury, not being a disease, arising out of or in the course of his employment; or
(b) a worker suffers an injury, which is a disease and to which his employment contributed to a substantial degree, within the meaning of section 3(2A) –
his employer is, except as is otherwise provided by this Act, liable to pay compensation in accordance with this Act –
(c) to the worker; or
(d) if the injury results in the death of the worker, to the persons who are the worker's dependants at the date of his death or who would, but for any incapacity due to the injury, have been his dependants.
(1A)  Compensation is not payable under this Act in respect of a disease which is an illness of the mind or a disorder of the mind and which arises substantially from–
(a) reasonable action taken in a reasonable manner by an employer to transfer, demote, discipline or counsel a worker or to bring about the cessation of a worker's employment; or
(b) a decision of an employer, based on reasonable grounds, not to award or provide a promotion, transfer or benefit in connection with a worker's employment; or
(c) reasonable administrative action taken in a reasonable manner by an employer in connection with a worker's employment; or
(d) the failure of an employer to take action of a type referred to in paragraph (a) , (b) or (c) in relation to a worker in connection with the worker's employment if there are reasonable grounds for not taking that action; or
(e) reasonable action taken by an employer under this Act in a reasonable manner affecting a worker.
(2)  Compensation is not payable under this Act in respect of –
(a) any injury which is –
(i) attributable to the serious and wilful misconduct of the worker, unless the injury results in the death or serious and permanent incapacity of the worker; or
(ii) an intentional self-inflicted injury;
(b) the disease known as undulant fever or brucellosis, unless a medical practitioner has certified in writing that he is satisfied as to the result of the pathological examination of the blood of the worker that the worker is suffering from that disease; or
(ba) coronary heart disease, a diseased heart valve, an aortic aneurism or a cerebral aneurism or any prescribed injury, unless the employment contributed to the disease or injury to a substantial degree; or
(c) any disease, including the disease mentioned in paragraph (b) , in any case where the worker, at the time of entering his employment, wilfully and falsely represented himself in writing as not having previously suffered from that disease.
(3)  For the purposes of this Act, an employer is liable, subject to subsection (1) , to pay compensation pursuant to that subsection in respect of an injury suffered by a worker notwithstanding that the worker was, at the time when the injury was suffered, acting in contravention of any statutory or other regulation applicable to his employment, or that he was acting without instructions from his employer, if the act was done by the worker for the purposes of, or in connection with, his employer's trade or business.
(4)  Where a person ordinarily engages in work in relation to the port or harbour operations at a port or harbour and in connection with that work persons customarily attend at pre-arranged places for the purpose of being selected and engaged for employment in that work, then, in relation to any contract of service by which that person is engaged in that work–
(a) any such place shall be deemed to be a place of employment; and
(b) attendance at any such place for the purpose of being so engaged or otherwise in connection with the employment, shall be deemed to be attendance at a place of employment in pursuance of that contract–
and, in the application of this Act to the person's attendance at such a place, a contract of service by which, on any occasion, he is engaged for employment at such a place shall be deemed to continue until the next occasion on which he is so engaged.
(5)  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  
(6)  For the purposes of this section, an injury does not arise from a worker's employment if it occurs –
(a) while the worker is travelling in either direction between the worker's place of residence and the worker's place of employment, except where that journey occurred –
(i) at the request or direction of the employer; or
(ii) if the journey is work related, with the authority (expressed or implied) of the employer; or
(b) while the worker is travelling between places where the worker is employed by different employers; or
(c) while the worker, on a working day, is temporarily absent from the worker's place of employment, except where that absence occurs at the request or direction, or, if it is work related, with the authority (expressed or implied), of the employer; or
(d) during a social or sporting activity which takes place away from the worker's place of employment, except where the worker's involvement in that activity forms part of the worker's employment or is undertaken at the request or direction, or with the authority (expressed or implied), of the employer.
(7)  For the purposes of subsection (6)(a)(ii) , a journey is not work related by reason only of the fact that it is for the purpose of enabling a worker to travel –
(a) to his or her place of employment from his or her place of residence; or
(b) to his or her place of residence from his or her place of employment.
(8)  No compensation is payable to a worker under this Part in respect of any disease for which he or she is entitled to compensation as an employee under the Workers' (Occupational Diseases) Relief Fund Act 1954 .