Did you know, if you suffer an injury whilst travelling to work, you may be entitled to make a claim for workers compensation? Read on to find out more on workers compensation claims relating to travelling to work.
Not all work-related injuries occur whilst you are in your workplace.
Depending on your profession, you may have to travel for work – whether this be by bike, car or planes. If you are injured travelling to work in Australia, you may be able to claim compensation for injuries which occurred on your commute.
Australians can be eligible for help through WorkCover if you are:
- Injured travelling between your home and workplace
- Injured travelling between your workplace and work oriented activities, such as a training course or client meetings
- Injured travelling from your medical or rehabilitation treatment center to your workplace (your injury must form a prior WorkCover injury claim)
- Injured travelling between jobs if you have more than one workplace
- Injured traveling for work-related reason (i.e. conferences or client offices interstate or internationally)
Make sure you are eligible for a claim
To be eligible for a claim you must have started your travel without taking any deviations or delays whilst travelling from your home to your workplace. For example, if you were a teacher and ran an errand on your way to your school which caused your incident – this may affect your claim.
If you are still in your home whilst on your way to work, you are considered to have not yet started your journey and you would not be eligible. You may however, be eligible for a claim if your home is your workplace. You can read more about this on the Government website here.
The most important factor when claiming workers compensation for an injury sustained travelling to work, is being able to provide a substantial connection between your journey and work. For example, a substantial connection could be if you were expected to work back late, and you were undertaking your journey back home, for example, on your bike in the dark. If you were struck by a vehicle because of the visibility in the dark, despite taking precautions – you may have a case for WorkCover.
It can be difficult to sometimes prove this substantial connection whilst claiming for workers compensation.
This is because, in most situations, there are multiple factors which could influence why an accident takes place.
We have the experience and knowledge you need to review your claim and check if you have ground to start a WorkCover claim. Don’t go it alone – get the professional help you need on a no-win, no-fee basis.