55Liability in relation to disease

55 Liability in relation to disease (1) Subject to subsection (3), where a worker was employed by 2 or more employers in employment the nature of which caused a disease, compensation shall be recoverable from the employer who last employed the worker in that employment. (2) A claimant for compensation recoverable as provided in subsection (1) shall, if so requested by the employer from whom compensation, if payable, is recoverable, furnish that employer with such information as the claimant possesses as to the names and addresses of other employers who employed the worker in employment the nature of which caused the disease. (3) If the employer alleges that the disease was contracted while the worker was in the employ of some other employer, he or she may join that other employer as a party to proceedings and, if the allegation is proved, compensation, if payable, is, subject to subsection (4), recoverable from that other employer. (4) Where compensation is, pursuant to subsection (3), recoverable from an employer other than the employer who last employed the worker, and that first-mentioned employer proves to the satisfaction of the Court that the disease is being or was accelerated or aggravated by the worker's later employment with a particular employer or employers, the first-mentioned employer is entitled to recover from that particular employer or those particular employers, as the case may be, in respect of that acceleration or aggravation, such amount or amounts: (a) as agreed between the insurer of the first-mentioned employer and the insurer or insurers of that particular employer or those particular employers, as the case may be; or (b) in the absence of such agreement, as the Court determines.

Return to Work Act 1986 45 (5) For the purposes of subsection (4), insurer shall, in relation to an employer who is under section 120(2) approved to undertake the liability to pay compensation to his or her own workers, be construed as meaning that employer.