How far do your safety obligations extend beyond the office walls or factory floor?

摘要

When telstra employee Dale Hargreaves slipped down the stairs twice in as many months while working from home, the reverberations were felt far and wide. Hargreaves' employer denied liability, arguing that the falls occurred away from her designated workstation. However, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal disagreed, ordering that Telstra pay Hargreaves' medical costs for the physical and psychological injuries she suffered, as well as legal costs and compensation for lost income. With the bill stretching to potentially millions of dollars, doomsayers predicted the 2011 judgment would be the end of flexible work arrangements. But reports of this death have been greatly exaggerated.