Accident Compensation Act 2001

28 Work-related personal injury

• (1) A work-related personal injury is a personal injury that a person suffers—

  • (a) while he or she is at any place for the purposes of his or her employment, including, for example, a place that itself moves or a place to or through which the claimant moves; or

  • (b) while he or she is having a break from work for a meal or rest or refreshment at his or her place of employment; or

  • (c) while he or she is travelling to or from his or her place of employment at the start or finish of his or her day's work, if he or she is an employee and if the transport—

    • (i) is provided by the employer; and

    • (ii) is provided for the purpose of transporting employees; and

    • (iii) is driven by the employer or, at the direction of the employer, by another employee of the employer or of a related or associated employer; or

  • (d) while he or she is travelling, by the most direct practicable route, between his or her place of employment and another place for the purposes of getting treatment for a work-related personal injury, if the treatment—

    • (i) is necessary for the injury; and

    • (ii) is treatment of a type that the claimant is entitled to under Part 1 of Schedule 1.

  (2) In subsection (1)(d), most direct practicable route does not include those parts of a route that deviate unreasonably from, or interrupt, a journey for purposes unrelated to the employment or the treatment.

  (3) Work-related personal injury includes a cardiovascular or cerebrovascular episode suffered by a person, if the episode is caused by physical effort or physical strain, in performing his or her employment, that is abnormal in application or excessive in intensity for the person.

  (4) Work-related personal injury includes personal injury caused by a work-related gradual process, disease, or infection.

  (4A) Work-related personal injury includes work-related mental injury that is suffered in the circumstances described in section 21B.

  (5) Work-related personal injury includes personal injury suffered by a person resulting from treatment for a work-related personal injury as defined in subsections (1), (3), or (4), whether or not the injury is a treatment injury as defined in section 32.

  (6) Work-related personal injury does not include personal injury suffered by a person when all the following conditions exist:

  • (a) the personal injury is suffered in any of the circumstances described in subsection (1); and

  • (b) the personal injury is suffered in the circumstances described in section 21; and

  • (c) the person elects to have the personal injury regarded as a non-work injury, in which case that personal injury is a non-work injury.

  (7) It is irrelevant to the decision whether the person suffered a work-related personal injury that, when the event causing the injury occurred, he or she—

  • (a) may have been acting in contravention of any Act or regulations applicable to the employment, or in contravention of any instructions, or in the absence of instructions; or

  • (b) may have been working under an illegal contract; or

  • (c) may have been indulging in, or may have been the victim of, misconduct, skylarking, or negligence; or

  • (d) may have been the victim of a force of nature.

  (8) This section is subject to section 29 (personal injuries that are both work-related and motor vehicle injuries).

  Compare: 1998 No 114 s 32

  Section 28(4A): inserted, on 1 October 2008, by section 9 of the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 46).

  Section 28(5): amended, on 1 July 2005, by section 11 of the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Amendment Act (No 2) 2005 (2005 No 45).