The nurse who sought damages in the world's first lawsuit involving post-traumatic stress disorder as a "bodily injury" was awarded nearly $4.4 million, plus funds management fees, the NSW Supreme Court has revealed today.
Comcare has successfully argued, on appeal, that a worker's psychiatric injury arose from reasonable administrative action, rather than the three years of bullying and harassment that allegedly preceded it.
Regulators should "join the criminal law dots" to ensure accommodation workplaces don't get away with WHS breaches, while legislators should develop guidance for these workplaces and amend the definition of "notifiable incident", according to a former WorkSafe Victoria prosecuting solicitor.
Australian researchers have developed a five-week workplace intervention program that they say increases worker resilience and improves safety during organisational change.
The Federal Court has upheld an earlier decision to award workers' compensation to a Telstra employee whose stress injury arose from his belief that his workload was excessive.
Workplace early-intervention programs play a crucial role in preventing mental health problems escalating, and have helped one white-collar worker realise her back and neck pain was exacerbated by anxiety, according to occupational physician Dr Andrea James.
A supreme court judge has stressed that employers bear the onus of proving a "reasonably arguable case" against a workers' comp claim, and awarded compensation to a psychologically injured worker.
Workers in the health sector are at significant risk of being bullied and harassed because employers are failing to tackle the issue through risk management frameworks or hold senior staff accountable for inappropriate behaviour, the Victorian Auditor-General has found.
A psychologically injured worker has been denied compensation, after a commission found the work-related stressors that allegedly caused his mental breakdown were probably hallucinations.
