WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 84AA
WORKERS' COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 1981 - SECT 84AA
84AA . Employer to keep position available during worker’s incapacity
(1) Where a worker who
has been incapacitated by injury attains partial or total capacity for work in
the 12 months from the day the worker becomes entitled to receive weekly
payments of compensation from the employer, the employer shall provide to the
worker —
(a) the
position the worker held immediately before that day if it is reasonably
practicable to provide that position to the worker; or
(b) if
the position is not available, or if the worker does not have the capacity to
work in that position, a position —
(i)
for which the worker is qualified; and
(ii)
that the worker is capable of performing,
most comparable in
status and pay to the position mentioned in paragraph (a).
Penalty: $5 000.
(2) The requirement to
provide a position mentioned in subsection (1)(a) or (b) does not apply if the
employer proves that the worker was dismissed on the ground of serious or
wilful misconduct.
(3) Where, immediately
before the day mentioned in subsection (1), the worker was acting in, or
performing on a temporary basis the duties of, the position mentioned in
paragraph (a) of that subsection, that subsection applies only in respect of
the position held by the worker before taking the acting or temporary
position.
(4) For the purpose of
calculating the 12 months mentioned in subsection (1), any period of total
capacity for work is not to be included.
[Section 84AA inserted: No. 48 of 1993 s. 39;
amended: No. 42 of 2004 s. 147.]