Red Alert: “Amount C” Reduces To $2,647.30

WorkCover have issued the Prescribed Amounts to be effective 1 July 2017.

The maximum weekly payment rate (“Amount C ”) is reduced to $2,647.30 (currently $2,666.80) from 1 July 2017.

The question then is whether employers / insurers are permitted to reduce wages affected by this variation automatically, ie. from $2,666.80 to $2,647.30, effective 1 July 2017.

We consider that there is a good argument to do so on the basis that:

Section 18 of the Workers’ compensation & Injury Management Act 1981 (WA) provides that:
“if an injury of a worker occurs, the employer shall, subject to this Act, be liable to pay compensation in accordance with Schedule 1”.

Schedule 1 provides that in all cases a worker’s weekly earnings cannot be more than “Amount C”.

Any payments in excess of “Amount C” are not weekly payments.

This is not an unlawful reduction of weekly payments, but rather, it is a variation of weekly payments in order to comply with the provisions of the statute.

Therefore, in our opinion there is a good argument that the employer/insurer is entitled to reduce weekly payments for those workers receiving weekly payments calculated in accordance with “Amount C”, reducing them to the new capped amount.