Fitness company guilty of not helping two injured workers

18 December 2007

The Court heard that two workers, who were employed as a swimming instructor and a personal trainer at the company’s Melton and Oakleigh leisure and fitness centres, were injured in 2006. At the time, both workers submitted their compensation claim to the company, who did not forward these to their Authorised Agent until after the legally required period. In fact, one of the claims was submitted up to 54 days late.

Belgravia Leisure Group also failed to prepare a return to work plan for one of the workers until some weeks after his compensation claim was accepted. The second injured worker was never given a return to work plan despite returning to work on light duties in the following month.

The organisation was fined $2,000 and ordered to pay costs of over $1,000 to WorkSafe Victoria.

Belgravia Leisure Group claimed in Court that following these two cases it has introduced new processes to prevent any recurrence of such offences.

WorkSafe Executive Director, Len Boehm, said that identifying and prosecuting cases like this helps to build awareness among employers about their legal obligations to support injured workers and the importance of helping an injured worker return to work.

“Not assisting one worker is extremely poor performance. The fact that Belgrave Leisure Group did not assist two workers is just not acceptable.

“Helping an injured worker back to work assists in the early recovery and rehabilitation of the worker, it reduces productivity losses and minimises the impact on an employer’s workplace injury insurance costs.

“Followed by simply staying in touch with an injured worker, the preparation of a return to work plan is a critical step in the process of assisting injured workers back into the workplace.”