Covid-19 Employee Standdown An Employment Benefit

An Arbitrator in the Personal Injury Commission has found that a worker, who sustained psychiatric injury when her employer stood her down during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, was not entitled to compensation. The Personal Injury Commission upheld the employer's defence - that its reasonable conduct when faced with the pandemic meant that it was protected from liability to the worker.

The employer, which like numerous other employers, was forced to consider workforce changes as a result of the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. As part of the strategy to avoid widespread retrenchment, and with the benefit of the Jobkeeper payments, it stood down part of its workforce.