Weekes and Australian Postal Corporation

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DECISION AND REASONS FOR DECISION [2008] AATA 1155

ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS TRIBUNAL      )

)          No   2008/0286

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION		)
Re		LESLEY WEEKES

Applicant

And AUSTRALIAN POSTAL CORPORATION

Respondent

DECISION

Tribunal

Ms G Ettinger, Senior Member

Dr J Campbell, Member

Date              23 December 2008

PlaceSydney

Decision

The Tribunal affirms the decision under review.

 Pursuant to section 67(8) of the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation     Act 1988 no costs may be awarded.

.................[sgd].............................

Ms G Ettinger
  Senior Member 

1.      Ms Lesley Weekes is currently a Senior Postal Delivery Officer. She joined Australia Post in 1993 at Bateman’s Bay and has worked there ever since, becoming a permanent employee in 1995/6. It is a small post office, has had the same manager for the whole period she has been there, and a staff of approximately ten people. Ms Weekes whose job has mainly entailed sorting mail, says that she developed pain in both arms, thumbs, and wrists which became worse in the period May – July 2007 when the post office was short staffed, and she did an extra hour of sorting a day. She also says that she injured herself or aggravated an underlying condition in 2003/4, and sought medical assistance at that time. Ms Weekes says she told people at work about it, but did not report the condition formally, or make a claim until 2007.

2.      In a determination dated 3 September 2007, Australia Post did not accept liability for compensation for injury claimed by Ms Weekes to have occurred sometime in 2003 in respect of the left and right hands, fingers and wrists. This was affirmed in the reviewable decision of 12 December 2007. In the reviewable decision, the Reconsideration Officer denied the claim on the basis of section 53 of the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (the Act), and on the basis that Ms Weekes had submitted insufficient medical evidence to establish that she suffered from any work related condition in respect of her hands, fingers and wrists.

3.      We had to decide jurisdictional issues in regard to the claim, and assess the medical evidence. We found pursuant to section 53 of the Act that Ms Weekes had not notified the 2003/4 injury, and found that the medical evidence did not, in any case, support the claim she lodged in 2007. Accordingly we affirmed the decision under review. Our reasons follow.

Issues to be Decided

4.      The issues before the Tribunal were:

·     The application of section 53 of the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988; whether the notification of injury was made;

·     Whether the medical evidence supports Ms Weekes’ claim that the pain she suffers in her left and right hands, wrists, thumbs and fingers is compensable pursuant to section 14 of the Act, that is did the Applicant’s employment contribute to a material degree to it.

Relevant Legislative Context

5.      The relevant legislation is the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988, in particular sections 4, 14 and 53.  Section…