Sedentary lifestyle caused worker's pain, RSI claim rejected

Debilitating pain suffered while performing tasks at work is only compensable if employment can be linked to the onset or aggravation of the condition causing the pain, the AAT has ruled in upholding Comcare's decision to reject a workers compensation claim.

The Queensland Centrelink employee claimed compensation payments in 2007 after complaining of pain in both her forearms and being diagnosed by her general practitioner as having "RSI due to work, with a carpal tunnel component".

In the AAT, however, Senior Member Margaret Carstairs heard that at least five specialists disagreed with this diagnosis.

Out of the two rheumatologists, two occupational physicians and one orthopaedic surgeon who examined the worker after the GP's diagnosis, not one found evidence of RSI or a link between the employee's pain and her work, she heard.

One physician found that the worker had a full range of movement in her elbows, wrists and fingers, and that her pain was the result of "de-conditioning" due to obesity and a lack of regular exercise over the previous 20 years.

Another found "no objective evidence of a current medical condition".

"The medical evidence is overwhelmingly against acceptance of [the worker's] claim for compensation," Senior Member Carstairs said.

Referring to precedent, she said that while the inability to make a precise diagnosis could not, on its own, "defeat a well-founded claim", to say that pain itself was compensable would be drawing too long a bow.

There must be evidence that employment contributed to or aggravated a condition that caused the pain, she said.

While the presence of pain was not in dispute, Senior Member Carstairs noted, the worker's condition was caused by a sedentary lifestyle and de-conditioned muscles.

"These are matters unrelated to her work."

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