WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 173

WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 173

173 .         Worker’s rights against insurer when employer ceases to exist etc.

        (1)         Where during the currency of a contract under this Act between an employer and an insurer in respect of the employer’s liability to a worker the employer dies, or in the case of a corporation has commenced to be, or is, wound up, ceases to exist or the employer cannot be found or no longer resides in Australia or in a Territory within Australia or has ceased to carry on the business, or business of the kind, to which that contract related, then in any such circumstance —

            (a)         the worker has the same rights and remedies against the insurer that the employer otherwise would have had under the contract; and

            (b)         the insurer has, to the extent of his liability under the contract, the same liability to the worker and the same rights and remedies in respect of that liability that the employer otherwise would have had to that worker and in respect of that liability.

        (2)         Where, under subsection (1), the liability of the insurer of an employer is less than that which the liability of the employer to the worker would have been, the worker may proceed for the balance against the employer, or in the bankruptcy or liquidation of the employer, or against the personal representative of the employer.

        [Section 173 amended: No. 72 of 1992 s. 19; No. 31 of 2011 s. 112.]