New Types of Injuries

Even though I have worked full time in workplace safety for over 30 years, I was somewhat surprised to find some of the new terminology emerging out of recent court cases in the Supreme Court and the Fair Work Commission (FWC).

A supreme court judge recently commentated that an injured labour-hire worker developed a kind of “litigation neurosis” that prevented him from seeking treatment.

In another case a FWC commissioner observed that a worker’s “embitterment disorder” caused the injured worker to perceive reasonable management action as bullying.

Neither of these two examples are intended to infer the individuals involved were not injured or not genuine about their concerns, but it does highlight the growing trend of subjective injury claims, as opposed to traditional objective (physical) injuries.