Work Injury Compensation Act 2019 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 2 · Compensation for Work Injury
7. Employer’s liability to compensate for work injury
Feedback & supportIn plain English
An employer must pay compensation when an employee is hurt in an accident arising out of and during their work. The employer does not pay for an injury directly caused by alcohol or a drug. Deliberate self-injury is not covered. Fight injuries are covered only in some cases, such as when the employee attacked nobody or broke up the fight.
Summary · Drafted with AI, checked against the official text on 30 Sep 2026.
Last amended by an amending law of 2023.
Where personal injury is caused to an employee by an accident arising out of and in the course of the employee’s employment with an employer, that employer is liable to pay compensation under this Act.
personal injury
“injury” or “personal injury” includes an occupational disease or a disease mentioned in section 10(1)(c);
An employer is not liable to pay compensation in respect of —
employer
“employer” means any person (A) who employs an individual (B) under a contract of service and includes —(a)the Government, if B belongs to a class or description of employees of the Government declared to be employees for the purposes of this Act under paragraph (a) of the definition of “employee”;(b)the legal personal representative of A, if A is deceased;(c)a duly authorised agent or manager of A;(d)the person who owns or is carrying on, or for the time being is responsible for the management of, the profession, business, trade or work in which B is engaged; and(e)where B is employed for the purpose of any game or recreation and engaged or paid through a club, the manager or members of the managing committee of that club.
any injury to an employee resulting from an accident if it is proven that the injury to the employee is directly attributable to the employee being at the time of the accident under the influence of alcohol or a drug; (b)deliberate self‑injury or the deliberate aggravation of an accidental injury by an employee; or (c)any injury to an employee suffered in a fight or an assault on one or more persons unless —
the employee did not assault any other person in the fight or, if the employee did assault any person, it was done in the exercise of the right of private defence in accordance with sections 97 to 106A of the Penal Code 1871; or
the employee was, at the time when the injury was suffered —
breaking up or preventing the fight or assault; or (B)in the course of safeguarding life or any property of any person or maintaining law and order, under any instruction or with the consent, whether express or implied, of the employee’s employer.
In this section, “drug” means —
a controlled drug or psychoactive substance within the meaning of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1973; or
a prescription only medicinal product —
specified for the purposes of section 29 of the Medicines Act 1975 that was not supplied in accordance with a prescription by an appropriate practitioner under that Act for the employee’s consumption or use; or
under the law of the jurisdiction where the accident happened that was not supplied in accordance with a prescription in accordance with that law for the employee’s consumption or use.
For the purposes of this Act, an accident arising in the course of an employee’s employment is deemed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to have arisen out of that employment.
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;