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Common Law Claim |
A workers’ compensation claim in which a worker seeks damages against their employer in respect of a disability, if the disability was caused by negligence of the employer or other tort and compensation has been paid or is payable.
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Disease |
Subsection 5(1) of the Workers' Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 (WA) defines disease as including any physical or mental ailment, disorder, defect, or morbid condition whether of sudden or gradual development. See also Injury.
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Durable Return to Work |
An injured worker who returned to work and is still working seven to nine months after they have returned to work.
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Duration |
The duration of a claim is usually calculated in working days, and is based on estimates for unfinalised claims and actuals for finalised claims.
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Exempt Employer |
An exempt employer is an employer exempted under section 164 of the Workers' Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 (WA) from the obligation to insure. Also commonly referred to as a self-insurer.
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Frequency Rate |
Frequency rate is the number of lost-time claims per million hours worked and indicates the prevalence of workers’ compensation claims. It is based on the number of hours worked for employed persons covered by workers’ compensation.
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Full Return to Work |
An injured worker who returns to work at an equivalent level of pay and hours and is not receiving workers’ compensation payments.
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Incidence Rate |
The incidence rate is the number of lost-time claims per hundred employees (part-time, full-time, casual, and seasonal) exposed to risk.
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Industry |
Industry classification is based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) system 1993, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ANZSIC system groups together businesses that carry out similar economic activities and is structured into a hierarchy of units reflecting different levels of description.
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Injured Worker |
A worker who made a workers’ compensation claim.
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Injury |
Injury is defined under subsection 5(1) of the Workers' Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 (WA) as:
1. A personal injury by accident arising out of or in the course of employment or while acting on the employer’s instructions.
2. A disabling industrial disease (e.g., poisoning, lung disease, etc.).
3. A disease contracted in the course of employment or the recurrence or aggravation of a pre-existing disease where the employment contributed to a significant degree.
See also Disease.
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Injury Management |
Injury management is a recommended framework involving the injured worker, employer and treating medical practitioner working together to assist the worker to stay at work or return to work following a workplace injury.
From 14 November 2005 injury management was incorporated into the Workers' Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 (WA).
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Insurer |
Insurers comprise of those insurers approved or formerly approved under section 161 of the Act and also the Insurance Commission of Western Australia (formerly the State Government Insurance Commission).
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Journey Claims |
Up to 24 December 1993, workers’ compensation claims could be lodged for injuries sustained while travelling to and from work. Journey claims have since been excluded from claims data.
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Jurisdiction |
Refers to the compensation authority that has responsibility for a population of injured workers. It generally refers to individual states and territories. Within Australia, two other entities exist, Comcare, which is responsible for Commonwealth agencies, and Seacare, which is responsible for seafarers.
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Long Duration Claims |
Long duration claims are workers’ compensation claims with 60 working days or more of lost-time.
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Lost-Time Claims |
Lost-time claims are claims for which the injury or disease results in an absence from work of at least one day or shift.
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Manual-Handling Injuries |
Manual-handling injuries are a component of the 'body stressing' group in the mechanism of injury or disease classification.
Manual handling includes muscular stress while lifting, carrying or putting down objects, muscular stress while handling objects other than lifting, carrying or putting down, and repetitive movements with low muscle loading.
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Mechanism of Injury or Disease |
The mechanism of injury or disease refers to the action, exposure or event that best describes the circumstances that resulted in the most serious injury or disease.
A comprehensive list of inclusions and exclusions for each classification is available at www.nohsc.gov.au.
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Nature of Injury |
The nature of injury classification is intended to identify the most serious injury or disease suffered by the worker. The injury or disease suffered is generally physical, although the classification includes categories for mental illness. Injury results from a single traumatic event where the harm or hurt is immediately apparent (eg. burns resulting from an acid splash) or conversely, disease resulting from repeated or long-term exposure to an agent (eg. noise-induced hearing loss).
The full list of inclusions/exclusions for each of the categories is available from the National Occupational Health and Safety Council's Type of Occurrence Classification System 2.1, which is available online at www.nohsc.gov.au.
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No Return to Work |
An injured worker who is not working and is not deriving an income from employment.
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Non-Durable Return to Work |
Refers to a worker who returned to work for a period of time but had to stop work again due to their work related injury.
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Ongoing Claims |
Ongoing claims are claims lodged in a previous year, which are still open at the beginning of the current year of interest.
Ongoing claims are usually organised by the financial year of lodgement and exclude journey claims, no-lost-time claims and asbestos-related diseases. See also: Active Claims.
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Partial Return to Work |
An injured worker who returns to work in a part-time or reduced capacity and is still receiving workers’ compensation payments.
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Return to Work (RTW) |
An injured worker who has had time off work as a result of their work related injury and has returned to work.
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Self-Insurer |
See exempt employer.
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Step-down |
A step-down refers to the point at which weekly payments to an injured worker are reduced, currently from the 14th week after payments begin.
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Young Workers |
Young workers are those between the ages of 15 to 24 years at the date of injury.
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