New Bill to address Court of Appeal Neville Decision
On 17 September 2024 WorkCover WA informed stakeholders the Government was considering as a priority the implications of the Court of Appeal decision of Neville v Choice One Pty Ltd [2024] WASCA 104.
On 15 October 2024 the Minister for Industrial Relations, the Hon Simone McGurk MLA, introduced into the Parliament the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Amendment (Common Law Election Validation) Bill 2024.
The Bill addresses the adverse implications of the Court of Appeal decision by:
- Retrospectively validating common law elections made under the former Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 where the Director recorded the impairment assessment/agreement but did not do so before the purported election was made
- Enabling new proceedings to commence, or current proceedings to recommence, if proceedings have been struck out, stayed, dismissed, or discontinued on the basis of an invalid election since 5 September 2024
- Providing for a 12-month extension to the limitation period if a worker’s limitation period has expired, or will expire, before the amendment Act commences operation. This will apply where proceedings have been struck out, stayed, dismissed, or discontinued on the basis of an invalid election since 5 September 2024.
The Bill does not validate the worker’s election that was considered in the Court of Appeal decision due to his unique circumstances. This will preserve the effect of the Court of Appeal decision for only this worker and therefore not prevent him from seeking reinstatement of statutory compensation.
The Bill will be available on the WA Parliament website in due course. You can read the Minister’s media statement here.
