Catlow v Accident Compensation Commission

The applicant, Mr Catlow, sought special leave to appeal to the High Court of Australia against a decision of the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria concerning the interpretation of the *Accident Compensation Act 1985* (Vic). The dispute centred on the calculation of a totally incapacitated worker's pre-injury average weekly earnings, which determined the amount of weekly compensation payable under the Act.

The central legal issue before the High Court was the proper interpretation of section 95(1) of the *Accident Compensation Act 1985*, specifically how a worker's pre-injury average weekly earnings should be calculated. The core of the argument revolved around whether overtime payments should be included in this calculation, and how the "ordinary time rate of pay for the worker's normal number of hours per week" was to be determined, particularly in light of the deeming provisions within section 95(3).

The applicant contended that the Accident Compensation Tribunal had correctly interpreted section 95(1) by treating the ordinary time rate of pay and the normal number of hours per week as distinct elements to be calculated. This approach, it was argued, allowed for the inclusion of overtime in the earnings calculation. In contrast, the Full Court of the Supreme Court of Victoria had viewed the phrase "calculated at the worker's ordinary time rate of pay for the worker's normal number of hours per week" as a single, composite concept. This interpretation, the applicant argued, had the effect of excluding overtime from the calculation, which was particularly detrimental in cases like Mr Catlow's, where a significant portion of his working time was spent on overtime.