Re Connor and Australian Postal Corporation

[2009] AATA 973

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2009] AATA 973

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No 2008/2704

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE   DIVISION		)
Re		DEBRA ANN CONNOR

Applicant

And AUSTRALIAN POSTAL CORPORATION  

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal Mr G McDonald, Deputy President
Mr F O'Loughlin, Senior Member

Date18 December 2009

PlaceMelbourne

Decision The Tribunal sets aside the decision under review and in substitution decides that the Respondent is liable to compensate the Applicant for injury sustained in the course of her employment. 

........(sgd G McDonald)......................

Deputy President

COMPENSATION – Employee injured during lunch break - Whether place of injury was place of work – decision set aside.

Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 s 6

Barnard and Australian Postal Corporation [2008] AATA 507

REASONS FOR DECISION

18 December 2009 Mr G McDonald, Deputy President
Mr F O'Loughlin, Senior Member 

1.      Ms Connor seeks review of a decision to deny her benefits under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (the Act) in respect of an injury that occurred in the car park area at the rear of a building, the ground floor of which was the Bendigo Post Office/Australia Post shop (the car park, the Post Office Building and the Post Office respectively) at which she was, and is, employed by the Respondent Australia Post.  

2.      The issue in dispute is the Respondent’s liability to pay compensation under s 14 of the Act.  If there is a liability, the amount of the entitlement is not in dispute.

3.The dispute has three alternative bases:

(a)whether the injury occurred in the course of Mrs Connor’s employment without reference to s 6(1)(b) of the Act;

(b)whether s 6(1)(b) applies to deem Mrs Connor to have suffered a compensable injury; and

(c)whether s 6(1)(c) applies to deem Mrs Connor to have suffered a compensable injury.

4. The Respondent conceded, correctly, that if the place where Mrs Connor fell was a place of work for the purposes of s 6(1)(b), the Respondent has a liability to pay compensation.

5.Section 6(1)(b) provides as follows:

Injury arising out of or in the course of employment

(1)Without limiting the circumstances in which an injury to an employee may be treated as having arisen out of, or in the course of, his or her employment, an injury shall, for the purposes of this Act, be treated as having so arisen if it was sustained:

....

(b)     while the employee was at the employee's place of work, including during an ordinary recess, for the purposes of that employment; or....

6. For the reasons which follow, the Tribunal concludes that s 6(1)(b) applies and, because that section applies, it is unnecessary to consider Mrs Connor’s position without reference to s 6(1)(b), or under s 6(1)(c).

The facts

7.The facts leading to Mrs Connor’s claim are as follows:

(a)at the time of the injury Mrs Connor was an employee of Australia Post whose duties were required to be performed at the Post Office;  

(b)the Post Office property is bounded on three…