Worker says work duties had a 'heavy physical demand'
The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) recently dealt with a case involving a worker who filed an appeal for workers’ compensation for her left knee injury.
WorkCover Queensland, who first heard the worker’s application, rejected the claim because it was not satisfied that the worker’s injury and symptoms were work-related. Hence, the appeal to the QIRC.
Suffering from a left-knee injury
The worker involved in the case was employed as a cleaner at a hospital on a full-time basis between June 2008 and July 2020.
On 27 July 2020, the worker filed an application for workers’ compensation with the Regulator for an injury to her left knee, which she described as a meniscal tear.
The Regulator contended that the nature and extent of the worker’s duties could not have significantly contributed to her left knee injury.
It further argued that there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that the worker’s personal injury happened outside of her employment with the hospital.
The Regulator also noted that there was not enough evidence to consider that the worker’s employment with the hospital was a significant contributing factor to her injury.
Despite such contentions, the worker said that her left-knee injury arose over sometime during her employment with the hospital.
She noted that such an injury “occurred while she was performing her usual work duties which involved scrubbing bathroom tiles, bed cleaning, hanging curtains, high dustings and cleaning patients' rooms, public toilets, hallways, offices and stairs at the Hospital.”
The worker also highlighted that her work duties had a heavy physical demand which included kneeling, squatting, and knee bending, and that there were instances that she would climb up and down ladders and stairs in the hospital.
HRD recently reported about a casual worker who believed she was fired because she felt ignored by her employer after weeks of recovering from an injury. In that case, the employer accepted it had “serious issues” with its systems and communication.
Commission’s decision
After examining the case, the QIRC decided to set aside the Regulator’s review decision and accepted the worker’s application for workers’ compensation.
The Commission stated that while it did not find that the worker moved heavy rubbish or regularly climbed stairs, it was satisfied that over her 12 years of employment as a cleaner in the hospital, the worker performed duties that included her “bending her left knee, kneeling, squatting and climbing stepladders.”
“Although I have found that the climbing of stepladders to change curtains only occurred over the last three years of her employment, the other physical acts were constant and involved stress on her left knee over a long period of time,” the QIRC stated.
During such a time, the Commission said that the worker already had osteoarthritis in her left knee being first diagnosed in 2004.
Further, the Commission was also satisfied that the aggravation of the worker’s left knee injury occurred out of her work as a cleaner and that her employment at the hospital was a significant contributing factor to that aggravation.
