An ACT public servant’s sore knee has re-opened up the battle over what constitutes a public sector workplace injury.
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Lawyers are comparing the latest Canberra case with the infamous “sex-in-the-motel” public service compo claim that went all the way to the high court in 2013.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal, sitting in the capital on Wednesday, heard lawyers argue that territory government employee Elizabeth Prain was entitled to workers’ compensation for a knee injury sustained in a fall on a train trip to Sydney in May 2013.
But federal workplace insurer Comcare says the ACT Health project manager is entitled to nothing because she was not on a work trip, but travelling to the NSW capital for treatment for another injury that was covered by workers’ comp.
The case has echoes of the “PVYW” case of a Canberra public servant who won several rounds of a legal battle for compensation for injuries sustained while she had sex on a work trip to Nowra in 2007.
The woman’s six-year legal fight finally ended in October when she lost her case in the High Court.
But Ms Prain’s lawyer Geoff Wilson of Maurice Blackburn is adamant his client was covered by her workplace insurance when she had her fall on the train to Sydney, seriously injuring her knee.
“The injury is one arising out of her employment on the basis that Ms Prain’s workers compensation rights are a part of the terms and conditions of her employment with the ACT Government,” Mr Wilson told Fairfax Media.
“She was undertaking actions that were squarely within the terms and conditions of her employment.
“She was not injured in a fight or having sex in a hotel room or anything of this kind.
“She was injured exercising her industrial workers’ compensation right to access treatment for an already accepted separate injury.”
Australian Government Solicitor lawyers, appearing for Comcare on Wednesday, argued that the connection between the journey to Sydney and Ms Prain’s work at ACT Health was simply too remote for her employer to be forced to accept liability.
But Mr Wilson is confident in his client’s case.
“This fall on a train did not occur in her private time, it occurred during a trip authorised by Comcare for treatment which our client had a workers compensation right to attend,” the Canberra lawyer said.
The Tribunal reserved its decision.
