After suffering an injury in a motel room while having sex on a work trip, an Australian bureaucrat has lost her bid for compensation.
The woman, who cannot legally be named, had been meeting staff and taking part in training at a regional office before checking into a motel room that had been booked by her employer. In the November 2007 incident, she required hospital treatment after a glass fitting above the bed fell onto her while she was having sex. Her nose and mouth were hurt and she is also said to have suffered a psychological injury.
Australia’s highest court found that the light fitting had been pulled loose by the woman or who she was with at the time. To be eligible for compensation workers in Australia have to be ‘expressly or impliedly induced or encouraged by the employer’ to partake in the activity that caused the injury. It was determined that the sexual activity was ‘not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay’ and the ruling is significant as it would have impacted upon numerous other compensation cases.
The woman was awarded compensation by the Full Bench of the Federal Court last December but after a 4-1 decision this has now been overturned.
