Compliance

Woman Injured Having Sex During Work Trip Can Collect Workers’ Comp

By Business Report

Apr. 19, 2012

A woman injured while enjoying sex in a motel room during a work-related trip is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, an Australian judge ruled April 19.

The federal judge found that the injury occurred during the unnamed woman’s course of employment, reports state.

The injury happened after she arranged to meet a friend living in a town she was ordered to travel to by her employer, Australia’s Human Relations Section of the Commonwealth Government.

After a dinner, the woman and her male friend went to her motel room.

The friend stated they were “going hard” when a glass light fitting separated from the wall above the motel bed in 2007.

“I think she was on her back when it happened, but I was not paying attention because we were rolling around,” the friend said.

Her workers’ comp claim for facial and psychological injuries initially was rejected, the reports state. But her attorney argued that sex is an ordinary life activity, similar to showering in a motel room.

The federal judge agreed, stating that had the claimant been similarly injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room she also would have been entitled to workers’ comp benefits.

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