SRCOLA Amendments Pass Federal Parliament

On 29 March 2007, Federal Parliament passed the Safety Rehabilitation Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 (SRCOLA), including a late Government amendment to the SRCOLA Bill introduced into the Senate.  This will become the Safety Rehabilitation Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2007 (SRCOLA Act) on Royal assent.

This means that the SRCOLA Act will amend the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRC Act) with most of the amending provisions coming into effect on the day following the day of Royal Assent, which is expected to be mid to late April 2007.

The SRCOLA Act amends the SRC Act in the following ways:

• it strengthens the connection between work and eligibility for workers’ compensation, in particular in regard to disease claims;
• it removes workers’ compensation coverage for non-work related journeys and, where there is a lack of employer control over worker activity, from recess breaks;
• it reinstates the original policy intention behind the calculation of retirees’ incapacity benefits by accommodating changes to interest rates and superannuation schemes;
• for claimants who are no longer employed by the Commonwealth, it provides for their capacity to work outside Commonwealth employment to be taken into account when calculating incapacity benefits;
• it increases the maximum level of funeral benefits payable; and
• it corrects anomalies in the SRC Act to improve its administrative efficiency and ensure the original policy intentions behind particular provisions are maintained.

The Safety Rehabilitation Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 is available here.

The Government amendment, which amended the Bill before its passage, is available here.