S8 allows for the updating of NWE from time to time – i.e. in line with the wage rates, automatic increments etc. – so that it continues to be a fair representation throughout the lifetime of the claim, of what the client would have earned but for that injury.
Prior to October 2001, the amount of the new award or National Wage increase or increment or changed allowance was applied directly from the new pay tables to the client's NWE, as that change became payable to all others in the same work classification.
Delegates must still apply this procedure when back-paying a period of incapacity which occurred prior to October 2001.
However, the SRCA was amended on 1 October 2001 by Part 2 of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2001 to provide for a new method of calculating NWE for discharged employees only.
(Note no change to the method of updating NWE for serving members.)
The October 2001 amendment repealed the former Section 8(9) and substituted new Ss8(9)-(9D) which provides for the NWE of a discharged member to be increased annually on 1 July by reference to a statutory indexation rate (the Wage Cost Index) under S8(9B).
Reference is no longer made to comparable wage movements for serving members.