Western Australian Numbered Acts

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WORKERS COMPENSATION AND INJURY MANAGEMENT ACT 2023 (NO. 21 OF 2023) - SECT 160

160 .         Duty of employer to establish and implement return to work program

        (1)         In this section —

        return to work program means a program for assisting an injured worker to return to work in a timely, safe and durable way.

        (2)         The employer of an injured worker must ensure that a return to work program is established for the worker as soon as practicable after the earliest of the following —

            (a)         the day on which the worker’s treating medical practitioner issues a certificate of capacity to the effect that the worker is partially incapacitated for work;

            (b)         the day on which the worker’s treating medical practitioner advises the employer in writing that a return to work program should be established for the worker;

            (c)         the day on which, in proceedings under Part 6, an arbitrator determines, or the parties agree, that the worker has suffered an injury in respect of which compensation is payable and is partially incapacitated for work.

        Penalty for this subsection: a fine of $5 000.

        (3)         The return to work program must, as far as is reasonably practicable, be established in consultation with the injured worker.

        (4)         Subsection (2) does not require a return to work program to be established —

            (a)         for a worker who has returned to work unless the worker has a partial incapacity for work; or

            (b)         in circumstances prescribed by the regulations.

        (5)         The employer must ensure that the establishment, content and implementation of a return to work program are in accordance with the regulations.

        Penalty for this subsection: a fine of $5 000.

        (6)         The regulations may —

            (a)         specify minimum standards or requirements for the establishment, content and implementation of return to work programs; and

            (b)         require a return to work program to be in the approved form or include prescribed provisions.



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