To be legally entitled to make a workers compensation claim, you must be a worker and suffer an injury during your employment. You do not need to show your employer was at fault.
The terms ‘worker’ and ‘injury’ are defined terms, and more information regarding these terms are set out below.
Worker – A worker includes an employee. Under the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 contractors are also covered to the extent that they are ‘engaged by another person to work for the purpose of the other person’s trade or business under a contract with him for service, the remuneration by whatever means of the person so working being in substance for his personal manual labour or services.’
Injury – There are several definitions of an injury which include a personal injury by accident, contraction of a disease or the recurrence, aggravation, or acceleration of any pre-existing disease where the employment was a contributing factor to that recurrence, aggravation, or acceleration and contributed to a significant degree.
Stress Claims – Special exclusions apply to workers compensation stress claims. The exclusions are essential regarding industrial matters and include the worker’s dismissal, retrenchment, demotion, discipline, transfer or redeployment; and the worker’s not being promoted, reclassified, transferred or granted leave of absence or any other benefit about the employment; and the worker’s expectation of a matter; or a decision by the employer in relation to a matter referred to above.
This free work injury claim checker may help to provide more information about your workers compensation claim in Western Australia.