Injured as a WA police officer? Your cover depends on your appointment.

"May" has its natural meaning. On the sick leave clause of a 2001 agreement, the WAIRC, giving its view in case it was wrong that the application was outside its power, said "may" "ought not be read to mean shall" ([2003] WAIRC 07604 at [9], [29], [32]).

1. Fault. A member who suffers illness or injury through their own "fault or misconduct" is not entitled to paid leave for it (r 1308(1)), or to the r 1306 benefits (r 1308(2)). The Police Agreement says the same (cl 38.8).
2. Reporting. Notify your officer in charge and the Manager as soon as possible (r 1302).
3. Certificate. An application needs a medical or dental certificate, except for the day you become incapacitated on duty (r 1303). The Police Agreement has further exceptions, including five days a calendar year (cl 38.3).
4. Other work. No other occupation for reward while absent (r 1305; cl 38.9(b)).
5. Outside work. If incapacity results from paid work outside your duties, paid leave is discretionary or may be at a reduced rate (r 1309).
6. Coming back. Evidence of fitness after four weeks' absence (cl 38.10), and a directed medical examination if the Employer requires one (cl 38.11).
7. Special allowances continue during approved leave, except for your own fault or misconduct, and district allowance stops once you and your family have been away from the region for more than six continuous weeks (r 1304(2), (3); cl 38.6, cl 38.7).
8. Non-work-related medical expenses. The Employer "may pay" reasonable expenses less Medicare and insurance (cl 42.1(a)), and claims are due within 24 months (cl 42.3).

While serving, a sworn officer has:

1. no weekly payment scheme;
2. no lump sum;
3. no process like the WCIM Act's for disputes.

When leave runs out or is refused, nothing in these provisions supplies an income. Common law damages for a serving officer's injury are not addressed by these provisions, and this guide does not cover them.

Who retires the member:

1. a commissioned officer: the Governor, on the Minister's advice, on the Commissioner of Police's recommendation (s 33ZE(6));
2. a non-commissioned officer or constable: the Commissioner of Police, with the Minister's approval (s 33ZE(7));
3. a liaison officer or auxiliary officer: the Commissioner of Police alone (s 33ZE(8)).

1. During consideration, the Commissioner of Police and the Governor must not suspend the member's pay (r 8).
2. The member may be transferred or stood down on full pay, with a 60-day review (s 33ZP).
3. After retirement, a maintenance payment runs for 28 days, calculated on salary on the retirement day. Up to 6 months more needs a Minister's direction in exceptional circumstances, and ends when any appeal is determined (s 33ZF).

1. The Commissioner of Police may revoke the decision, by notice to the Minister up to the retirement day and by Gazette notice afterwards (s 33ZG).
2. A member may resign within 28 days after the retirement day, unless an appeal has been instituted. The retirement is then taken never to have had effect (s 33ZH).
3. A resignation bars the appeal (s 33ZI(4)(b)).
4. A resignation, or a revocation after the retirement day, means Part 2D "does not apply, and is taken never to have applied" (s 33ZU(2)). A member weighing resignation against compensation may want to see that first.

The time limit probably cannot be extended, and no decision on s 33ZI(4)(a) was found. The Act lets other periods be lengthened (s 33ZD(4)(b), and s 33ZZB(6) for the Tribunal), gives no such power for this appeal, and says it "cannot be instituted" later. The Commission's general power in Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) s 27(1)(n) is applied to these appeals by a Table, which is why the point can be argued, but no decision settles it. Work to 28 days after the retirement day.

The registry's lodging rules are set out on Discipline, removal and appeals.

The Police Agreement and the Police Auxiliary Officers Agreement each have a medical board clause, under headings that use the word "removal".

1. Police Agreement cl 43.2: three practitioners nominated by the Commissioner of Health under the Public Health Act 2016 (WA), and if the board reports the officer "unfit for further active service", the Employer "shall advise the Employee of the date the Employee will cease duty".
2. Police Auxiliary Officers Agreement cl 62.2: three practitioners nominated by the Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Health under the Health Act 1911 (WA), with the same result.

Neither clause mentions Part IIC, any payment or any appeal, and neither is about loss-of-confidence removal. The Act's process and appeal right are in Part IIC. How the clauses sit with Part IIC has not been decided in anything read for this guide.

Part 2D applies to a medically retired member (s 33ZU(1)) who:

1. was a commissioned officer, non-commissioned officer, constable or liaison officer, and not an auxiliary officer (s 33ZS(1));
2. has a retirement day on or after 1 January 2022, the day the Part commenced;
3. has or had a compensable medical condition;
4. has reached the entitlement day: the 29th day after the retirement day, or the day after any appeal is decided or discontinued (s 33ZS(1));
5. if they appealed, did not get an order that the retirement is of no effect (s 33ZU(1)(d)).

It does not reach an officer who is still serving, who resigned, or who was removed under Part IIB.

A medical condition is a personal injury by accident, a disease, or the recurrence, aggravation or acceleration of a pre-existing disease. To be compensable it must be one (s 33ZS(1)):

1. the member had when, or before, the retirement decision;
2. "incurred in the course of, or that arose out of" the performance of the functions of office;
3. to which the retirement decision "was attributable (wholly or partly and directly or indirectly)".

The Commissioner of Police must pay (s 33ZV(1)):

1. permanent impairment compensation: a percentage of the prescribed amount by the Table in WCIM Act s 101, reduced to the assessed degree of impairment, and capped in total at the prescribed amount (ss 33ZV(2), 33ZW(7), (8), (10));
2. a salary amount: the most that keeps the impairment compensation and the salary amount together within the prescribed amount, and no more than the annual salary on the retirement day (s 33ZV(3));
3. a vocational rehabilitation amount: 7% of the prescribed amount (s 33ZV(4));
4. on application, permanent total incapacity compensation (s 33ZZ):
   1. an amount "proper in the circumstances, having regard to the social and financial circumstances, and reasonable financial needs" of the retiree;
   2. up to 75% of the prescribed amount;
   3. decided by a legal practitioner assessor who is not subject to the Commissioner of Police's direction;
   4. one application only.

The prescribed amount is the general maximum amount in WCIM Act s 538 for the financial year of the entitlement day (s 33ZS(2)). Section 538(1) states $243,991, and regulations may vary it (s 538(3)). The $239,179 in the example in s 33ZV is only an example. Check the current figure before relying on either.

Assessment and an application under s 33ZZ can run in parallel with the Part IIC process, once a member has been directed to a medical board (ss 33ZW(4), 33ZZ(6)).

Permanent impairment compensation requires that "the compensable medical condition is or was a personal injury by accident" (s 33ZW(3)(c)). The exception is noise induced hearing loss of at least 10% (s 33ZX). AIDS has its own rule, which still requires that the earlier infection occurred by accident (s 33ZY).

So as the Act stands:

1. a psychological injury that is a disease and not an accident can be a compensable medical condition;
2. it cannot found impairment compensation under s 33ZW(3);
3. it may still bring the salary amount, the vocational rehabilitation amount and permanent total incapacity compensation.

The WAIRC, constituted by a single industrial Commissioner, sits as the Police Compensation Tribunal for this jurisdiction (s 33ZZA(2), (3)). This is not the three-member bench that hears a retirement appeal.

1. What can be disputed (s 33ZZB(1), (3), (4)):
   1. the assessed degree of permanent impairment;
   2. a determination that the retiree does not qualify under s 33ZZ;
   3. the amount determined under s 33ZZ.
2. Time. 28 days, and the Tribunal may extend (s 33ZZB(2), (5), (6)).
3. Process. Usually conciliation first, then arbitration (ss 33ZZF, 33ZZH).
4. Representation. In person, by an agent or by a legal practitioner (s 33ZZE).
5. What is not listed. Section 33ZZB does not list a separate dispute about whether a condition is work-related at all. The Bill would add one.

Part 2D does not limit any other compensation or entitlement a person has apart from it (s 33ZT).

If the WCIM Act applies, its ordinary limits apply too:

1. a claim "must be made within 12 months after the injury occurs" (s 25(1)), though a late claim is not invalid in the cases in s 25(5);
2. a disease needs employment that "contributed to a significant degree" (s 6(3));
3. a psychological injury is excluded if it results wholly or predominantly from administrative action that is not "unreasonable and harsh", or from the worker's expectation of administrative action, and disciplinary action counts as administrative action (s 7(2));
4. medical retirement decides whether the auxiliary officer keeps the office, not whether compensation is owed.