Worker awarded $1.4m after RTW aggravation
A young Queensland worker who suffered back injuries in a dump truck incident, and then aggravated those injuries in another truck incident during her second day in alternative duties, has been awarded $1.4 million in damages. The Supreme Court ordered Golding Contractors Pty Ltd to pay damages to the truck driver – who was 23 at the time of the incident – after it admitted liability.
In March 2009, the worker was reversing a large dump truck at Ensham Mine near Emerald when she felt a “huge impact” to the rear of the truck, which caused her to be “slammed” back into her seat and then thrown forwards. She suffered a cervical spine disc prolapse and soft tissue injuries to her thoracic and lumbo sacral spine, and was diagnosed with a whole person impairment of 13 per cent.
The worker returned to work about three months later on a return-to-work program on suitable duties, and was directed to operate a truck the next day. While the worker was in the truck, a digger operator “rough loaded” her vehicle, which caused her to be shaken around, and increased her pain. She continued to operate trucks for limited hours over the next few days but her pain became “progressively worse” and she stopped working.
She sued her employer for damages. The employer admitted liability for the March incident, but disputed the amount of damages the worker was entitled to receive. It claimed it was common for workers not to be transferred to other projects within the company when their contracts finished, and that it was possible the worker wouldn’t have continued working in the mining industry after her contract with it ended in early 2010.
It also urged that as the worker planned to retrain as a teacher, her damages should be reduced based on her future earnings in that profession. A number of employers from different companies told the Court, however, that they would have offered the worker a job in the mining industry had she been fit to work when her contract ended.
Judge John North said he had a “high degree of satisfaction that in early 2010 the [worker] had excellent prospects of obtaining highly remunerative employment in the mining industry if she had been fit to work as a truck driver or plant operator”.
He also found her prognosis was poor, and that it was unlikely she would return to manual work in mining.
He awarded her $1,415,094, minus $50,984 for WorkCover payments already received.
Martin v Golding Contractors Pty Ltd [2014] QSC 53 (27 March 2014)
This article originally appeared in OHS Alert and is reproduced with permission of the author
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