24Transitional provision

24 Transitional provision

(1) Where an employee ceased to be an employee on or after 1 January 1973 and before the commencement of this Act and the amount that the approving authority could have authorized to be paid to or in relation to him or her under this Act upon his or her ceasing to be such an employee if this Act and the Public Service Amendment Act 1976 had come into operation on that first‑mentioned date exceeds that amount (if any) or the sum of the amounts (if any) that have been authorized or are authorized to be paid to or in relation to him or her under whichever of the relevant provisions were applicable to the employee: (a) if the employee ceased to be an employee by reason of his or her death: (i) the approving authority may authorize payment to a dependant of the employee of an amount equal to, or payment to 2 or more dependants of the employee of amounts aggregating, the excess; (ii) if the approving authority has not authorized a payment to a dependant, or payments to dependants, under subparagraph (i), the approving authority may authorize payment of an amount equal to the excess to the legal personal representative of the employee; and (iii) if the approving authority has not authorized any payment under subparagraph (i) or (ii) within 12 months after the commencement of this Act or, if it has been directed that the death of the employee is to be presumed to have occurred, within 12 months after the date on which that direction was given, the approving authority shall authorize payment of an amount equal to the excess to the legal personal representative of the employee; (b) if the employee has died after ceasing to be an employee—the approving authority shall authorize payment of an amount equal to the excess to the legal personal representative of the employee; or (c) in any other case—the approving authority shall authorize payment of an amount equal to the excess to the employee. (2) Where there are 2 or more dependants of a deceased employee in relation to whom paragraph (1)(a) applies, the approving authority shall, in exercising the power conferred on it by subparagraph (1)(a)(i), have regard to the respective losses suffered by those dependants as a result of the loss of earnings of the employee. (3) In subsection (1), a reference to the relevant provisions is a reference to any of the following provisions: (a) sections 7 and 8 of the Commonwealth Employees’ Furlough Act 1943; (b) sections 54C, 73, 74, 75A, 81K and 81V of the Public Service Act 1922; and (c) section 14 of the former Statistics (Arrangements with States) Act 1956.