Work Injury Compensation Act 2019 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 4 · Compensation Process
38. Refusal of medical treatment
Feedback & supportWhere an employee refuses treatment by a health professional or fails to carry out or deliberately disregards the instructions of a health professional for the employee’s treatment, the Commissioner may direct as follows:
employee
“employee” means an individual who has entered into or works under a contract of service with an employer and —(a)includes every employee of the Government in a class or description declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act; but(b)does not include any class of individuals specified in the Third Schedule;
where the employee is receiving any periodical payment of compensation for temporary incapacity under section 17 —
that those payments be suspended until the employee undergoes the treatment or complies with those instructions; and (ii)where the Commissioner is satisfied that the duration of the employee’s incapacity has been prolonged by the employee’s refusal, failure or disregard — that those payments also be restricted to such period, calculated from the date of the accident, as the incapacity of the employee might reasonably have been expected to have lasted, had the employee undergone the treatment and complied with those instructions;
Commissioner
“Commissioner” means the Commissioner for Labour appointed under section 3 of the Employment Act 1968;
where the employee has been assessed to have suffered permanent incapacity or current incapacity and the Commissioner is satisfied that the incapacity has been aggravated by the employee’s refusal, failure or disregard — that compensation be paid to the employee appropriate to such incapacity as the employee might reasonably have been expected to have suffered if the employee had undergone the treatment and complied with those instructions.