New PIAWE for workers injured on and from 21 October 2019

Workers Compensation Amendment (Pre-injury Average Weekly Earnings) Regulation 2019

The NSW government has published a Regulation as anticipated by the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment Act 2018 relating to changes to the method of calculating PIAWE for the purpose of determining a worker’s entitlement to weekly payments of compensation.

The Regulation commences on 21 October 2019 with the objective of simplifying the calculation of pre-injury average weekly earnings by providing that overtime and allowances are no longer excluded from PIAWE as the weekly average of a worker’s gross earnings over 52 weeks prior to their date of injury (subject to adjustment in some circumstances).

There will effectively be two different methods for calculating PIAWE for workers injured before and after the commencement date.

Employers and workers will be able to agree on the PIAWE amount to be applied as an alternative to the insurer making a PIAWE work capacity decision. The agreement must be approved by the insurer.

Link: Reference guide for PIAWE provides an overview of the changes.

New workers compensation Guidelines

New Guidelines issued by SIRA governing insurer conduct and case management will apply to all claims from 21 October 2019 replacing the Guidelines previously issued in

December 2018.

Link: Workers compensation guidelines

Amended Standards of Practice

Amendments to SIRA’s Standards of Practice: Expectations for insurer claims administration and conduct designed to deliver effective claims management practices will also apply from 21 October 2019.

Link: Standards of practice: expectations for insurer claims administration and conduct