Risk matters, safer WA communities
Local Government Risk Forum | Tuesday 6 September 2022
Exploring emerging and current risks for WA local governments
Partner, Mills Oakley
Mark Civitella is a partner of national law firm Mills Oakley and leads the firm’s Perth insurance practice. Mark has over two decades of experience as an insurance litigator. He is a preferred advisor to several Australian and global insurance companies and a number of self-insured companies and groups. Workers’ compensation claims are a significant part of Mark’s practice and in the past five years he has presented to many employers and industry groups in WA on the prevention and handling of claims. Mark is endorsed by several respected industry directories, including ‘Doyle’s Guide’ and ‘Best Lawyers in Australia’. Mark was recently announced as the Lawyer of the Year (Insurance) for the Best Lawyers in Australia Guide 2023 edition.
Studies have shown that COVID-19 can infect multiple organs including the lungs, kidney, heart and the brain and, as such, secondary effects are legitimate and real risks of contracting the disease.
Due to research being ongoing and the limited duration of existing cases, it is still unknown whether long COVID symptoms will be permanent, or whether patients will eventually go on to fully recover.
However, at this stage, employers and insurers should not rule out the possibility of long-term compensation exposure including Schedule 2 lump sum entitlements for permanent impairment where such symptoms persist long term.
Assuming that a ‘personal injury by accident’ can be established on the medical evidence, such as through damage to a particular bodily organ as a consequence of the disease, it is possible that the impairment will be assessed by an Approved Medical Specialist as being likely to continue for the foreseeable future for Schedule 2 purposes.
Local Government Risk Forum | Tuesday 6 September 2022
Exploring emerging and current risks for WA local governments
Long COVID refers to cases where the patient recovers from the acute COVID-19 infection effects but goes on to have longer term symptoms.
The new Work, Health and Safety Act WA (2020) (WHS) changed the definition of a worker to now include volunteers. LGIS members have been seeking clarity on how they can meet their obligations, and what types of protections are included with LGIS membership.
Symptoms of long COVID will be treated like any other secondary condition of an injury. If the COVID disease itself is found to be compensable, so too will the symptomatic effects of the disease.
Secondary psychiatric conditions are anticipated to be quite common, based on the experience of other jurisdictions. This is particularly the case among workers in high-risk industries where they may contract and recover from COVID-19 but develop anxiety around returning to work in an environment where a new infection could occur from re-exposure or exposure to different variants of the virus.
It is anticipated that difficult questions of causation may arise in cases of workers with co-morbidities. For instance, if an employee claims to remain unfit to work due to a symptom of fatigue after the acute phase of infection, expert medical opinion may be needed to address the cause of such and whether it is in fact due to contraction of the COVID-19 virus or a symptom of some other health condition.
Each month we take your questions to one of our LGIS team members to answer.
If you want to submit a question for next issue, email us at [email protected]
A demanding role. What does it take to be a bushfire volunteer? The LGIS injury prevention team have done the most exhaustive assessment yet of the demands of a volunteer bushfire fighter role.
LGIS members across the state, particularly in the south and Wheatbelt, faced fires which destroyed property and razed the land. Changing environmental conditions will continue to pose significant challenges.
Bushfire volunteers provide a vital service to our communities, and the work they undertake is often in very high-risk environments.
LGIS is the unifying name for the dedicated suite of risk financing and management services for WA local governments, established by the WA Local Government Association in conjunction with JLT Public Sector (part of the Marsh group of companies). LGIS is managed by JLT Public Sector (ABN 69 009 098 864 AFS Licence 226827).
Risk Matters, via this website, is designed to keep members, their staff and elected members informed on topical risk management and insurance issues and LGIS programs and services.
