Disclaimer

Please note that:
This information is general, and is not intended to address your specific circumstances. Please evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance carefully for your purposes

The information is not professional or legal advice. For this you should seek specific advice relevant to your circumstances from a qualified professional.

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Compliance Matters - ACC, Employment Contracts, Insurance, and OSH

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Contents

NZLSAR reference
Employment issues
Health and Safety
Insurance

ACC

NZLSAR reference

Section 14 of the NZLSAR Field Guide discusses various miscellaneous issues such as stress, club contacts, and claims for losses or expenses. These matters have also been referred to from time to time in the NZLSAR news magazine. All back-issues are available online at www.nzlsar.org.nz.

Employment issues

 Commitment is one of the key requirements of a SAR volunteer. An important aspect of being committed to SAR is the ability to take time off work. SAR volunteers must be able to take leave from their employment in order to attend callouts. WLSAR recommends that SAR volunteers clear the matter of SAR leave with their employers before joining SAR. Likewise, if a SAR volunteer is thinking of changing jobs, then check out leave for SAR as part of the negotiating process.

Need help with negotiating leave for SAR? Then check out the following links.

Health and Safety

 WLSAR is subject to Health and Safety legislation. This means that WLSAR must take all practical and reasonable steps to ensure the safety of its members, and the safety of anyone else who may be affected by our activities. WLSAR does this by:
  • Incorporating risk and hazard assessments into all aspects of any training or operation;
  • Having a rescue and recovery plan should anything go wrong;
  • Ensuring that WLSAR members are appropriately trained and equiped for the task at hand;
  • Making it mandatory for any WLSAR member to report any health and safety concerns, accidents or near misses.

More information

Insurance

 Insurance can probably broken down into a number of categories. Because New Zealand has the statutory ACC personal insurance scheme, no person or organisation can be sued by an accident victim for losses arising from personal injuries covered under the Accident Compensation Scheme. However, note that lawsuits could arise in cases where a person suffers an injury of a type not covered under the ACC scheme. A possible example is mental injury to a person who has not themselves suffered any physical injury (eg. a person who witnesses a death or is subject to a psychologically traumatic incident).

Personal Insurance policies

For these types of policies, (eg life insurance, income protection insurance, etc) - disclose your SAR involvement to your insurer (preferably when taking out the insurance policy). Explain that you may travelling in off-road vehicles, as well as undertaking unscheduled aircraft flights (usually helecopter) from time to time. Provide an estimate of how much time you will expect to be involved is such activities over any 12-month period - for most people, it's a small amount of time. The insurer will then determine whether it wishes to provide an exclusion on this activity. If your insurance cover is affected by SAR activities, then shop around if you can - not all insurers behave the same.

Accident Compensation - ACC

 ACC can get complicated! So, here's a very simplified guide to things ACC. (Disclaimer: No guarantees here - If you want to be sure of the situation, seek professional advice - read the disclaimer at the top of the left hand column).

In NZ, ACC covers everyone for personal injury caused by accident. (The current rules are contained in the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001). To lodge a cover claim, you (the claimant) must see a registered treatment provider (A&E doctor, GP, physio, etc) - don't wait around. The longer the delay, the more questions ACC is likely to ask. If you wait for more than a year, then expect lots and lots of questions.

The distinction between "cover", and "entitlements".

In general terms, Cover merely means that ACC accepts that you suffered a personal injury caused by an accident. A personal injury is defined as a physical injury, or a mental injury arising as a consequence of a physical injury.

Entitlements include things like weekly compensation, lump sums, social rehabilitation, vocational rehabilitation, treatment costs, etc. To be able to receive each type of entitlement, a claimant has to 'satisfy' a set of criteria particular to the requested entitlement. ie: Cover does not automatically result in entitlement(s).

The weekly compensation chestnut.

Some people strike difficulties when applying for weekly compensation. The basic requirements for entitlement to weekly compensation include:
  1. Your 'personal injury' prevents you from returning to your pre-injury 'employment', and
  2. You were an 'earner' at the time of your 'accident', and
  3. You were an 'earner' immediately before 'incapacity'. (the words in quotes are defined under the Act)

Work vs non-work injuries.

 Police Members of a SAR squad who hurt themselves while on duty suffer a work accident. Their claims are treated as work related personal injuries.
Volunteer members who hurt themselves during a SAR operation suffer a non-work accident. Their claims are treated as 'non-work related personal injuries'. (For the non-believers, the test for a work related personal injury is found in section 28, with the definitions of employee, employer and employment being found in section 6)

The main significant difference (for a claimant) between non-work and work related injuries arises when claiming for weekly compensation. Employees who suffer a work injury are entitled to weekly compensation over the first week of incapacity. The employer is liable to pay first week compensation.
People who suffer a non-work accident are not entitled to first week compensation. ACC only pays weekly compensation from the commencement of the second week of incapacity onwards.

Calculating weekly compensation.

This is where a lot of SAR people could find themselves out of pocket. If you want to look at the current 'rules' yourself, then go to www.legislation.govt.nz and look for the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Compensation Act 2001. Go to Schedule 1, Part 2 and look through clauses 30 to 53 ish. After you have stopped bashing your head against a wall, take an aspirin.

Some basic points on weekly compensation are:

  1. ACC is only liable to pay 80% of a claimant's assessed pre-injury income.
  2. ACC's rules for assessing income differ according to a claimant's employment or earner status. ACC puts earners into three categories: employees, self-employed, and shareholder employees.
  3. SAR volunteers will be most vulnerable if they have changed jobs, or if their earner status has changed recently. In these situations, the weekly compensation calculated by ACC will result in a much reduced cashflow situtation for the claimant. Beware.
  4. Self-employed and shareholder employees are also likely to find that weekly compensation calculated by ACC will result in a reduced cashflow situtation. This is because ACC must calculate weekly compensation based on the Inland Revenue Department's assessment of a claimant's income. Weekly compenation assessments are generally based on the income received in the financial year which ended prior to the date of accident. Self-employed people can address this situation by taking out an ACC package known as "Cover-Plus extra" - where a level of insured income can be nominated, and levies paid accordingly.

More information

Site Map This page last modified December 7, 2007