Section 189 provides compensation for incapacity payments for lost pay and allowances for those members who are injured during initial training. Initial training includes recruit training, officer cadet training and initial employment training.
The delegate needs to obtain the following information from Defence:
- the rank and pay group the person would have held after completing training;
- the date from which that rank would have been attained;
- the amount of pay the person would have received after completing training;
- any pay-related allowances the person would have received after completing training; and
- the amount of any such pay-related allowance.
In other words, NE for a person injured during initial training is the rank and pay level (plus allowances) they would have attained upon completion of that training, from the date they would normally have completed the training. Where a recruit is discharged prior to being assigned a specific billet, corps or mustering, it may be appropriate to progress that person's NE to Private Pay Group 3 or equivalent. In these circumstances the duration of initial employment training should be deemed to be 6 months.
Example
An Army recruit injured during week 2 of basic training and medically discharged 3 months later, without being assigned to a specific corps should have their normal earnings calculated as follows:
- Private recruit for 80 days from the date of enlistment;
- Private Trainee for 6 months from the date march out from the Army Recruit Training Centre;
- Private Pay Group 3 thereafter.
Note
In this example the recruit continued to be employed in the Army for 3 months post injury and paid as a Private recruit. Therefore the recruit will have a top-up entitlement for the period of his service beyond the 80 days recruit training.