Court clarifies that a break in medical certification does not suspend the obligation to pay weekly workers compensation payments
A Tasmanian public school employee has won a landmark workers compensation dispute after the state government attempted to use a gap in her medical certification to withhold weekly payments, a move three Supreme Court judges have unanimously rejected.
The Full Court of the Supreme Court of Tasmania, in a decision last month, dismissed the state's appeal and affirmed that employers cannot use a break in medical certification as grounds to stop paying injured workers.
The employee worked for the Tasmanian Department for Education, Children and Young People. She made a workers compensation claim in November 2022 after being incapacitated by stress and exhaustion.
Her employer did not dispute the claim within the statutory 84-day window, meaning liability was taken to have been accepted under the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Tas).
She continued submitting consecutive medical certificates until 18 May 2023. When her next certificate arrived on 14 June 2023, 27 days after the previous one expired, the Department invoked section 69(13) of the Act, which allows an employer to treat a certificate lodged more than 14 days late as a fresh compensation claim.
The Department referred the matter to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and stopped paying her weekly payments for the period covered by the...
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