Tag: Workers’ Compensation
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The biological extension—Why cross-border business travel triggers million-dollar workers’ compensation claims
In a groundbreaking determination that fundamentally alters the financial risks of corporate travel, the New South Wales Personal Injury Commission (PIC) has ruled that contracting a biological virus while on an overseas business trip is a compensable workplace injury. In the landmark case of Sara v G & S Sara Pty Ltd [2021] NSWPIC 286,…
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Toxic Exposure vs. Lifestyle Choice: The Realities of Workplace Disease Claims
Evaluating causation in occupational disease claims is highly complex when a worker has distinct, non-work-related health risks. For decades, employers and statutory insurers have tried to defeat workers’ compensation claims for respiratory cancers by arguing that a history of personal tobacco use outweighs any historical industrial exposure. However, a significant judgment from the Victorian County…
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The Death of Hatzimanolis: The High Court Rewrites the Rules for Work-Interval Injuries
For more than two decades, the boundaries of an employer’s workers’ compensation liability during work-related travel were governed by a relatively generous legal principle. Under the classic High Court ruling in Hatzimanolis v ANI Corporation Ltd (1992), an injury occurring during an authorized interval in a remote or temporary work assignment was generally compensable, provided…
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A dip, a slip and a hospital trip
In an unexpected turn the New South Wales Court of Appeal has dismissed a case put to the District Court involving a customer who fell in the cold section of the Coles Neutral Bay Supermarket in 2010. The case which was finalised in August last year resulted in Coles Supermarkets being sued for nearly $120,000…
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Worker contributorily negligent in stock trolley injury, but employer still responsible
A Queensland IGA worker was injured by a 240kg loaded trolley which ran into the back of her heel during a store fit out. The worker claimed to not have been trained in use of the trolley or OHS procedures but was found to have been contributorily negligent in failing to take reasonable care for…
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Worker successfully claims for injury during journey to work in SA
A worker has successfully argued before the Workers Compensation Tribunal in South Australia that a journey between home and work in an employer supplied vehicle was “undertaken in the course of carrying out duties”.
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SA lost more than 560,000 days of productivity due to claims in FY12
SafeWork Australia’s 2012 numbers reveal South Australia has the highest average premium of any Australian jurisdiction, losing more than 560,000 days of productivity during FY12.
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The value of witness statements in workers compensation
A recent case appealed before the Federal Court re-affirms the importance of witnesses in workers compensation matters. A worker claimed to have lifted a 35kg box and felt excruciating pain, witnesses could not verify his claims and liability for compensation was rejected.