Workplace relations? Comp claim on public servant's motel romp

BY JENNA HAND
COURT REPORTER
The Canberra Times
03 Nov, 2010

A public servant who was injured while having sex on a work trip has
taken her battle for compensation to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The woman was in Nowra for a conference in November 2007 when she
and her partner engaged in sexual activity in her motel room and pulled a
glass light fitting from the wall. It fell on the woman, injuring her nose
and one of her teeth.

After the Australian Government's workplace safety and compensation
authority, Comcare, refused the woman's claim, she sought a review of
the decision in the AAT.

Counsel for Comcare, Andrew Berger, said the activity that led to the
injury was ''a frolic of the applicant's own'' and that she should not be
awarded workers' compensation.

He said taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for injuries over which an
employer had no control.

''If it is a quintessentially private activity, it is not fair that taxpayers pay for
 the consequences of that activity,'' he said.

''When the applicant decided to embark on quintessentially private activities ...
 the nexus between the activity and work was broken.''

Asked by Senior Member Professor Robin Creyke how he distinguished
between going out to dinner and being injured, and being injured during
sex in a motel room, Mr Berger said the distinction lay in what activities
were explicitly authorised or reasonably incidental.

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