Victorian Current Acts Victorian Current Acts(1) (a) Where any person (in this section referred to as the principal contractor) in the course of or for the purposes of his trade or business contracts with any other person (in this section referred to as the contractor) for the execution by or under the contractor of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal contractor the principal contractor shall be liable to pay to any worker employed in the execution of the work any compensation under this Act which he would have been liable to pay if that worker and all other workers employed in the execution of the work had been immediately employed by him.
(b) Where compensation is claimed from or proceedings are taken against the principal contractor then in the application of this Act references to the principal contractor shall be substituted for references to the employer except that the amount of compensation shall be calculated with reference to the earnings of the worker under the employer by whom he is immediately employed.
(c) In the case of sub-contracts the words principal contractor shall extend to and include not only the original principal contractor but also each contractor who constitutes himself a principal contractor with respect to a sub-contractor by contracting with him for the execution by him of the whole or any part of the work, and the word contractor shall extend to and include not only the original contractor but also each sub-contractor, and each principal contractor's right to indemnity shall include a right against every contractor standing between him and the contractor by whom the worker was employed at the time when the injury occurred.
S. 60(2) amended by Nos 10191 s. 270(14)(a), 67/1992 s. 64(11)(a).
(2) When the principal contractor is liable to pay compensation under this section he shall be entitled to be indemnified by any person who would have been liable to pay compensation to the worker independently of this section, and all questions as to the right to and amount of any such indemnity shall in default of agreement be settled by the County Court or Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as preventing a worker recovering compensation under this Act from the contractor instead of the principal contractor.
(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall not apply in any case where any two or more persons in combination (herein referred to as a co-operating party) or any person on behalf of any co-operating party enter or enters into a contract for any work in a gold mine or a coal mine and the members of the co-operating party personally engage in such work; but the members of the co-operating party shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed workers within the meaning of this Act and the person with whom the members of such co-operating party or any person on its behalf have or has entered into a contract as aforesaid shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be an employer within the meaning thereof.
Division 3—Insolvency of employer
No. 5601 s. 61.
S. 61 amended by No. 6455 s. 2(1)(Sch. 1 Pt 2 item 15) (as amended by No. 6505 s. 2).