Galanis and Comcare (Compensation)

This matter concerned an appeal by Dr Galanis against a decision by Comcare to revoke its acceptance of his workers' compensation claim. Comcare had initially accepted the claim, deeming the date of injury to be 1 August 2014, but later reconsidered this decision at the request of the Department. The Department argued that Dr Galanis's condition arose from reasonable administrative action taken in a reasonable manner in respect of his employment, which would exclude it from compensation under subsection 5A(2) of the *Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988* (Cth) (SRC Act). Dr Galanis contended that the root cause of his condition was not his failure to secure a substantive position following an organisational restructure, but rather the lack of consideration for his term transfer and the absence of a clear plan for his relocation to Melbourne.

The Tribunal was required to determine several issues. These included whether Dr Galanis suffered an ailment as defined by the SRC Act, whether this ailment was contributed to to a significant degree by his employment, and if so, whether it was a disease under section 5B of the Act. Crucially, the Tribunal had to ascertain whether the ailment was suffered as a result of reasonable administrative action taken in a reasonable manner, thereby falling within the exclusion in section 5A(1) of the SRC Act. If this exclusion did not apply, the Tribunal also needed to determine if Dr Galanis's injury resulted in an impairment that entitled him to compensation under section 14 of the Act.

The Tribunal found that Dr Sare, Dr Galanis's predecessor, failed to take active steps to ensure his successor was aware of the commitment made to Dr Galanis regarding his relocation. Specifically, Dr Sare did not mention the commitment during the handover process and did not take steps to protect Dr Galanis from receiving mixed messages about this commitment. The Tribunal considered that Dr Sare should have either formally recorded the relocation commitment in writing, copied to relevant parties, or sent an email to his successor and Dr Galanis's line manager clearly advising them of the commitment. The Tribunal also noted that Dr Galanis's employment ended on 9 March 2016, following a period of various forms of leave after he decided to take voluntary redundancy.