Flanagan and Comcare (Compensation)

This matter concerned a review of decisions made by Comcare regarding an applicant's entitlement to compensation for a back condition. The applicant's employment with Australian Hearing, which involved a cramped workspace and the use of a telephone and laptop, led to accepted work-related conditions in her cervical spine and shoulders. Following surgery to her cervical spine, a bone graft was taken from her left hip. The applicant contended that pain from this hip graft caused her to limp, which in turn aggravated her pre-existing back condition. She also argued that the nature and conditions of her employment contributed to her back issues.

The Senior Member was required to determine two primary legal issues: firstly, whether there was a causal link between the applicant's left hip bone graft procedure and her subsequent back condition, and secondly, whether the nature and conditions of her employment gave rise to or aggravated a back condition. The applicant's back had been symptomatic since at least 2007, with her workstation being assessed at that time due to reported lower back pain. While her neck symptoms had been the primary focus, her back pain persisted, and she underwent back surgery in 2014.

The Senior Member concluded that the applicant's back condition was aggravated by the nature and conditions of her employment. While the applicant's submission that the hip graft caused a limp that aggravated her back was considered, the Senior Member found that the employment conditions themselves contributed to the aggravation of her lumbar spine condition. This aggravation was deemed a compensable injury, taken to have occurred on 8 May 2007, the date of the ergonomic assessment report.

Consequently, the Senior Member set aside Comcare's decision of 7 June 2017 and substituted it with a decision that Comcare was liable under section 14 of the *Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988* (Cth) for the aggravation of the applicant's lumbar spine condition. Comcare was also ordered to pay the applicant's costs of the proceedings.