There could be a raft of workers’ compensation claims following extreme weather events if people continue to work.
For example, Cyclone Alfred could trigger a wave of workers’ compensation claims if people WFH as the extreme weather event makes landfall. If you WFH, you’re still covered under the same rules as if you were in the office.
Many will be forced to stay home to protect themselves against the brunt of the cyclone and this is where things could get dicey. Hart & Co. lawyer Roxanne Hart told Yahoo Finance that workers and bosses need to be aware of what their rights are.
“For example, if your employer said you have to work during the cyclone,” she explained.
“But as you’re working downstairs in your study, the study floods and you get electrocuted… that could be a scenario that could potentially arise and that’s a concern.”
She said that employee would be entitled to apply for workers’ compensation because they were injured while working, even if it was from home.
Can you get compensation for being injured during a Cyclone?
The legitimacy of a Work Cover claim would depend very much on how you injure yourself.
Consider this scenario.
You’re working from home and you notice your outside furniture has started to shift in the massive gusts of wind.
You may feel inclined to rush out and secure them.
If you injure yourself during this endeavour then it’s likely that you won’t be able to apply for workers’ compensation.
That’s because the task you were doing wasn’t related to your line of work.
However, another worker who had already moved their furniture inside tripped on a routine bathroom break, may be in a different situation.
A person working from home could have moved their furniture inside in preparation for the cyclone’s landfall.
If, on a routine bathroom break, you tripped on those furnishings, you may be entitled to compensation.
Are you serious?
While it might sound like splitting hairs, this has already happened in Australia, but admittedly not during a cyclone.
A woman in South Australia was granted compensation for an injury she sustained while she was working from home.
The City of Charles Sturt staffer told the state’s Employment Tribunal that she tripped and fell over a 60-centimetre-high metal fence while she was working from home.
She had installed the fence across the doorway to her home office so that a colleague’s puppy, which she was dog-sitting for the day, could be kept away from her pet rabbit.
The Tribunal ruled her injuries arose out of her employment as the fall happened during an “authorised coffee break at her place of employment”, and, as a result, she was deemed eligible for compensation.
Hart told Yahoo Finance that because a coffee break was considered a standard part of the office experience, it was eligible for compensation.
“Whereas running around outside, locking down your house, and fastening things over your roof to keep it in place isn’t something you typically do during work,” she said.
“That is out of the ordinary of what you’d typically be doing.”
Can you be forced to come into the office during the cyclone?
The Australian work landscape has hit a WFH wall, with many companies — in the both private and public sectors — pushing a return to the office.
This week the Coalition vowed to end work-from-home privileges for Australia’s 185,000 public servants if elected.
The move was criticised by Anthony Albanese as a “lazy” policy stolen from the Trump administration, which has forced those who refused the call back to the office on administrative leave.
Major companies, including Amazon, Tabcorp, Dell, and Flight Centre, have demanded a full-time in-office workforce.
But, can you punish workers who refuse?
One Queenslander has claimed their employer demanded they go into the office as weather conditions deteriorated in the face of the incoming cyclone.
The staffer said the teams laptops had all recently been returned and the only way they could continue to work was on the computers in the office.
“Despite these extraordinary circumstances, senior leadership has issued a firm directive mandating full office attendance, with a zero-tolerance policy for absences,” they said on Reddit.
They claimed they would be punished if they chose to work from home, including by forfeiting performance-based bonuses, be reassigned to a lower-paid role, or be fired.
Hart said that while weather events like Cyclone Alfred provide reasonable grounds to stay home.
“If the employee doesn’t comply and the employer terminates them on that basis, that employee would have very good grounds for an unfair dismissal,” Hart said.
However, without reasonable grounds, workers can be forced to go back to the office.
“An employee’s failure to follow a lawful and reasonable direction, such as to return to the office, can constitute a valid reason for dismissal,” McCabes Lawyers principal Tim McDonald told Yahoo Finance.
Source: Yahoo Finance
