A council worker who broke her arm and injured her knee when she tripped over a puppy fence during a coffee break while working from home has won a workers compensation claim.

The ruling handed down in the South Australian Employment Tribunal, the City of Charles Sturt employee had erected a temporary 60-centimetre metal pet fence across the doorway to her sunroom, where her home office was set-up, to allow her to babysit a colleague’s puppy while working from home in September 2022. The fence had been put in place to keep the puppy away from her pet rabbit.

Background

The employee, who was permitted to work from home from time to time with prior notice, tripped and fell when she got up to make a cup of coffee in the morning, having started work about an hour earlier. She suffered a humerus fracture and injured her right knee when she landed on her right side.

The employee stated that making a coffee at this time was something she would have done had she been working in the office, as she did not have set times for short breaks over the course of her working day. The employee also noted that the council had encouraged the employee to get up from her desk regularly.

The employee made the claim against the Local Government Association Workers Compensation Scheme.

Findings

In the decision, the tribunal found the fall had occurred during an authorised coffee break at her place of employment.

The judgement noted that when the employee took her paid coffee break, she needed to walk through the doorway across from where she had erected the pet fence. As the fence was there, the employee says that she had to step over it and when doing so, her left foot caught the top of the pet fence, causing her to lose balance and fall forward.

After the fall, the employee felt “instant and extreme pain” and was taken via ambulance to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. She was admitted to hospital but discharged on the same day and referred to a physiotherapy outpatient clinic. The employee returned to full duties six weeks after the fall.

Important considerations

The tribunal noted that while the employee had not discussed the pet fence with anyone from the council, there “was nothing that limits the application of the workers compensation scheme by reason of an injury occurring due to a feature of the workplace not known or authorised by an employer”. The injuries were found to have arisen out of her employment and that the physical workplace hazard, being the pet fence, was a significant contributing cause of her injuries.

The tribunal found the employee’s right arm fracture was not in dispute, but noted inconsistencies in her evidence about the extent of the injury to her right knee, which cast sufficient doubt on the reliability of her evidence.

Accordingly, while the tribunal determined that the employee’s right knee injury in addition to the right humerus fracture occurred in the course of her employment, they found that that it was temporary and did not continue beyond September 2022.

The tribunal will hear from both parties about the compensation sought before making the orders.

Key takeaways

While working from home arrangements have benefits for both employers and employees, those benefits are accompanied by additional risks. It is essential to remember that a private residence of an employee may have unique hazards not usually found in the workplace.

In this case, the tribunal acknowledged the council’s working from home checklist demonstrated its attempts to guard against work health and safety risks arising from home-working. However, in all other respects the Council had effectively evaded its responsibilities for the provision and maintenance of a safe working environment when working from home.

If you have employees working from home and need assistance to sharpen up your working from home processes, get in touch with our team today.

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