Interpreting section 19 (3A)

Section 19 (3A) [as distinct from 19 (3) (a)] is the provision which must be considered when dealing with redeployment cases.

It states:

“If, as a result of the incapacity:

(a)the amount per week payable to the employee in respect of his or her continued employment is reduced; and

(b)a pension under a superannuation scheme is payable to the employee;

subsection (3) applies to the employee in relation to a week during which the employee is incapacitated as if the references in the subsection to the amount he or she was able to earn during the week in suitable employment were instead references to the sum of that amount and any amount of the pension referred to in paragraph (b) that is payable to the employee in respect of that week.”

Where an employee has reduced earnings in continued employment and is in receipt of a pension, section 19 (3A) applies.

The formula to use is:

NWE - (AE + SUPER)

with AE being reduced earnings.

Ability to earn will tie directly back to the applicable area of section 19 (3).  This will be dependent on the amount of hours the employee is working in the redeployed position.

Remember the 19 (3) chart?  For redeployed employees, it will change to incorporate superannuation, where partial invalidity was granted prior to 01/07/1995 (CSS fund members only):