Civil servant who tripped over indoor pet fence wins workers comp

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An Australian civil servant who worked from home during COVID-19 and was injured when she tripped over a dog fence has been deemed eligible for workers’ compensation.

Lauren Vercoe, a council administrative employee in the city of Charles Sturt, was working from a home office on Sept. 19, 2022, when she went for an “authorized break,” according to the ruling from the South Australian Employment Tribunal this month.

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On her way to the kitchen, Vercoe caught one of her feet on the nearly two-foot tall barrier she erected. It was meant to keep a colleague’s dog that she was puppy-sitting separated from her pet rabbit.

She failed to catch herself on the door-jam and fell hard on her right knee and right side.

Feeling “instant and extreme pain,” she went to Royal Adelaide Hospital by ambulance and was treated for a fractured humerus – the upper bone in the arm connected to the shoulder joint – and an apparent knee injury. She was discharged with her arm in a sling, a metal brace around her knee and a referral to an outpatient physiotherapy clinic.

The council worker put in an initial compensation claim under the Local Government Association Worker Compensation Scheme, but it was rejected in October 2022 on the basis that her employment was not deemed a significant factor in her injuries.

Six weeks after the fall, having received treatment for her injuries, she was back to work full-time.

Self-created hazard?

The recent decision from by Magistrate Jodie Carrel notes that Vercoe had been granted permission to work from home that day and her employer knew about the dog. However, “she had not had a discussion with anyone from her employer in relation to erecting the pet fence and that she had not been advised or directed by her employer to do so.”

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In submissions to the tribunal, Vercoe’s counsel argued that didn’t matter and suggested: “there is nothing that limits the application of the worker’s compensation scheme by reason of an injury occurring due to a feature of the workplace not known or authorised by an employer.”

Lawyers for the Compensation Scheme countered that Vercoe caused her own fall by putting up the barrier.

“Had it not been there, the fall would not have happened.”

Carrel disagreed, ruling that even if Vercoe put it up without her employer knowing, it was “an employment-related cause. This is particularly so, given the extent of Ms Vercoe’s autonomy in managing her own health and safety while working from home.”

One joint only

A hearing to determine the amount of Vercoe’s compensation has yet to be scheduled, but it won’t include recompense for the knee injury.

Based on the totality of submissions, Carrel said the continuing symptoms in the six months following the fall – described by Vercoe as numbness and occasional pain – could be related to pre-existing conditions.

Vercoe suffered a knee injury as a child that left her with a sizeable scar above her kneecap and, at 21, she received an arthroscopy for treatment of a sports injury.

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Further, she did not consult with her general practitioner or the hospital’s outpatient clinic regarding her knee in the weeks following the tumble. Though she claims, despite a lack of documented evidence, that she did in both cases.

Vercoe and the compensation board’s counsel sought the opinion of independent doctors, both of whom contended the fall likely only worsened her pre-existing conditions.

The board, in its submissions, claimed Vercoe “exaggerated facts” around her knee injury, but Carrel rejected the notion.

“There are many reasons a witness’s recollection of events may be inaccurate. Memory is fallible. A witness may hold a genuine belief in an incorrect fact.”

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