Death in hotel gym found to be compensable

The South Australian Employment Tribunal has recently ruled that the family of an Adelaide businessman who suffered a lethal heart attack while exercising in a hotel gym during a work trip to Hangzhou City, China should be eligible to apply for compensation, because the exercise was conducted with "the implied encouragement" of the employer.

Background

The Tribunal heard that on 12 November 2018, Mr Eric Palmbachs ('Palmbachs'), the Chief Financial Officer executive for Core Lithium Ltd suffered a major heart attack while exercising in a hotel arranged by his employer. Mr Palmbachs, who had developed severe and extensive coronary artery disease over a number of years, suffered a coronary rupture while exercising alone in the hotel's facilities and was taken to the Hangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where he was later pronounced dead.