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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
The Australia High Court has come down against an amorous worker seeking workers compensation.
The unnamed worker, an employee of Australia’s Human Relations Section of the Commonwealth Government, was injured in a motel room in 2007 after a glass light fitting separated from the wall and fell on her while she was engaged in sexual intercourse. The woman subsequently sought compensation from Comcare, the workers compensation insurer for the Australian Commonwealth Government, claiming the injuries she sustained occurred during her course of employment.
After two lower courts decided in the woman’s favor, Comcare appealed to the highest court in the Australian judicial system, the High Court, which ruled on Wednesday that the insurer was not liable for the woman’s injuries.
“When the circumstances of an injury involve the employee engaging in an activity at the time of the injury, the relevant question is: did the employer induce or encourage the employee to engage in that activity?” the court said in its ruling. “On the facts of the respondent’s case, the majority held that the answer to that question was ‘no.’”
The brouhaha over unpaid interns has now spread to Yelp Inc., the company that operates websites that rates and features opinions about businesses.