Pharmacy Daily | No compo for pharmacy party fall

A National Pharmacies employee's bid to receive compensation for a head injury suffered while at the banner group's annual awards has been dismissed.

Mike Power suffered a medical episode, which contributed to a fall in a bathroom of the Adelaide Convention Centre on 21 Oct 2015, a South Australian Employment Tribunal heard.

The Tribunal was told Power suffered amnesia as a consequence of his injury and has no recollection of the incident.

Pharmacist, Meer Afsar Sultan, who was witnessed the incident said Power hit his head against the door handle before crashing to the floor hitting his head for a second time against the floor.

Sultan gave evidence that Power was "unsteady on his feet" at the time of the accident.

Counsel for Power argued that he was at the event at the request of his employer, making it a work-related event covered by the Return to Work Act 2014.

However, the Tribunal ruled that his attendance at the event was not the cause of the injury, rather the injury was caused by a medical condition that was not connected to his work.

Dismissing Power's application the presiding judge said: "In my opinion the employment was merely the occasion of the injury rather than a significant cause".

"The fact that the hard floor in the bathroom created a situation in which a fall could result in a serious injury does not establish that Mr Power's employment was a significant contributing cause," the judge said.

"The medical episode and the injury just happened to occur while Mr Power was in the bathroom. There was nothing about his employment that caused the injury.

"I find Mr Power's employment was not a significant contributing cause of the injury and accordingly the Return to Work Act 2014 does not apply."