In September 2010 the Supreme Court awarded an employee $387,633.82 in damages for injuries sustained in a workplace incident. The employee was working alone in the retail shop and was assaulted. The trial judge found that the employer had breached its duty of care to the employee by, “failing to install a ‘mechanism’ to exclude others from a work space not visible to the general public” (at [15]). On appeal the trial judge’s finding on negligence were reversed with the Court of Appeal determining that there had been no breach of duty on the part of the employer. The reasoning of the Court of Appeal was not disturbed by the High Court of Australia in an application for special leave. This section note examines the various courts statements on the duty of care for workers working alone.
History
Volume
32
Issue
4
Start Page
193
End Page
195
Number of Pages
3
ISSN
0312-1658
Location
Riverwood, NSW
Publisher
Thomson Reuters
Language
en-aus
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Open Access
No
External Author Affiliations
Faculty of Arts, Business, Informatics and Education; Institute for Resource Industries and Sustainability (IRIS);