Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003

This Act may be cited as the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003.

Sections 613 to 618 and 621 are taken to have commenced on 1 April 2003.

The remaining provisions of this Act, (other than sections 612, 619 and 620) commence on 1 July 2003.

This Act binds all persons, including the State, and, so far as the legislative power of Parliament permits, the other States.

A note in the text of this Act is part of the Act.

This part states the main objects of this Act.

The objects are an aid to the interpretation of this Act.

This Act establishes a workers’ compensation scheme for Queensland—

providing benefits for workers who sustain injury in their employment, for dependants if a worker’s injury results in the worker’s death, for persons other than workers, and for other benefits; and

encouraging improved health and safety performance by employers.

The main provisions of the scheme provide the following for injuries sustained by workers in their employment—

compensation;

implementation of the national injury insurance scheme for serious personal injuries resulting from workplace incidents connected with Queensland;

regulation of access to damages;

employers’ liability for compensation;

employers’ obligation to be covered against liability for compensation and damages either under a WorkCover insurance policy or under a licence as a self-insurer;

management of compensation claims by insurers;

injury management, emphasising rehabilitation of workers particularly for return to work;

procedures for assessment of injuries by appropriately qualified persons or by independent medical assessment tribunals;

rights of review of, and appeal against, decisions made under this Act.

There is some scope for the application of this Act to injuries sustained by persons other than workers, for example—

under arrangements for specified benefits for specified persons or treatment of specified persons in some respects as workers; and

under procedures for assessment of injuries under other Acts by medical assessment tribunals established under this Act.

It is intended that the scheme should—

maintain a balance between—

providing fair and appropriate benefits for injured workers or dependants and persons other than workers; and

ensuring reasonable cost levels for employers; and

ensure that injured workers or dependants are treated fairly by insurers; and

provide for the protection of employers’ interests in relation to claims for damages for workers’ injuries; and

provide for employers and injured workers to participate in effective return to work programs; and

provide for workers or prospective workers not to be prejudiced in employment because they have sustained injury to which this Act or a former Act applies; and

provide for flexible insurance arrangements suited to the particular needs of industry.

It is also intended that workers and employers understand that they may, as they consider appropriate, seek advice and support in relation to the scheme from a lawyer or a registered industrial organisation.

Because it is in the State’s interests that industry remain locally, nationally and internationally competitive, it is intended that compulsory insurance against injury in employment should not impose too heavy a burden on employers and the community.

This Act provides for the efficient administration of the scheme and of this Act through the establishment of the office of the Workers’ Compensation Regulator and WorkCover.

The dictionary in schedule 6 defines particular words used in this Act.

Accident insurance is insurance by which an employer is indemnified against all amounts for which the employer may become legally liable, for injury sustained by a worker employed by the employer for—

compensation; and

damages.

Compensation is compensation under this Act, that is, amounts for a worker’s injury payable under chapters 3, 4 and 4A by an insurer to a worker, a dependant of a deceased worker or anyone else, and includes compensation paid or payable under a former Act.

Damages is damages for injury sustained by a worker in circumstances creating, independently of this Act, a legal liability in the worker’s employer to pay damages to—

the worker; or

if the injury results in the worker’s death—a dependant of the deceased worker.

A reference in subsection (1) to the liability of an employer does not include a liability against which the employer is required to provide under—

another Act; or

a law of another State, the Commonwealth or of another country.

Also, a reference in subsection (1) to the liability of an employer does not include a liability to pay damages for loss of consortium resulting from injury sustained by a worker.

QOTE, for a financial year, is—

the amount of Queensland full-time adult persons ordinary time earnings declared by the Australian Statistician in the original series of the statistician’s average weekly earnings publication most recently published before the start of the financial year; or

if the amount mentioned in paragraph (a) is less than QOTE for the previous financial year—the amount that is QOTE for the previous financial year.

The Regulator must, before the start of a financial year, notify—

QOTE for the financial year; and

the percentage difference in QOTE for the financial year compared to QOTE for the previous financial year.

The percentage difference under subsection (2)(b) may be rounded to the nearest second decimal place.

The Regulator’s notice is subordinate legislation.