Guidelines for making journey claims under new workers' compensation laws

3/8/94

Guidelines for making journey claims under the new workers' compensation laws have been drawn up by the insurance industry and adopted by the State Government.

Labour Relations Minister Graham Kierath told State Parliament the guidelines would remove uncertainty for employers, workers and insurers as they clearly spelt out situations when a journey injury would be accepted.

"When I introduced changes to workers' compensation, journey claims for injury during home-to-work travel were no longer compensable because that type of travel had nothing to do with the employer and was beyond his or her control," Mr Kierath said.

The new guidelines were for situations where an employee's injury occured while travelling under the employer's instructions, other than the normal home-to-work journey.

The place of residence was where the worker ate, drank or slept, not including the boundary of the land around the residence and the worker was deemed to have left the residence when he or she stepped out the front door.

Temporary places of residence such as a holiday home or motel were regarded as a 'home'.

The worker was considered to have arrived at the place of employment by entering the main gates of the premises or a car park owned or controlled by the employers.

Some examples of journeys covered under the new guidelines:

·   from home to an airport or train or bus station and subsequent travel all in the course of employment in and outside of WA, or from home to a business appointment  other than the normal place of employment;

·   journeys from home by workers 'on-call' to deal with emergency situations;

·   journeys from home to a destination other than the normal workplace where the workers's attendance is required in the course of employment;

·   travel to employment in company-arranged or paid transport such as a company bus or a taxi, but not in company vehicles which are part of a workers' salary package or provided for workers to carry out their duties; and -

·   journeys between worksites and business appointments.

Among travel injuries not compensable are:

·   the usual everyday journey between the home and the regular workplace.  This includes workers such as auditors or computer contractors who agree to report to and work at a particular office or workplace for an extended period of time; and -

·   journeys by a tradesperson from home to a building site at which they usually work.  However, a worker required to visit several building sites would be covered.

"The authors of these guidelines have used a commonsense approach reflecting the intention of the legislation and the need for insurers to handle claims on a consistent basis," Mr Kierath said.

Media contact:  Brian Coulter 222 9595 or 481 2133