Domestic violence entering the workplace: NSW workers compensation guide

Domestic violence entering the workplace can occur through threat, stalking or assault at the worksite and perpetrator entering or monitoring a work-from-home setting during work. The incident history should identify the task, equipment, location and sequence of events rather than relying on the job title alone.

People commonly exposed include workers approached or contacted by a perpetrator at a workplace and workers threatened through workplace systems or during work travel. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a domestic violence entering the workplace may identify physical injury from assault or escape and a diagnosed psychological injury linked to workplace violence. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a domestic violence entering the workplace, immediate reporting and safety records may include police event number and any protection-order information safely retained and workplace incident and security report. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• Access, call, email, roster and work-from-home records.
• Safety plan and supervisor response without unnecessary private detail.

For a domestic violence entering the workplace, the first evidence to preserve includes time and place of the event and work being performed and how the perpetrator used or entered the workplace. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Prior workplace safety notifications and controls.
• Medical and psychological evidence distinguishing relevant events.

Medical and psychological evidence after a domestic violence entering the workplace may include physical and psychological treatment records and diagnosis and functional effect connected to the workplace event. A diagnosis alone may not answer causation or capacity: the records should explain the work event, symptoms, treatment and practical restrictions.

• Capacity restrictions concerning location, contact details, work systems and travel.
• Careful records that avoid unnecessary disclosure of private history.

After a domestic violence entering the workplace, an insurer may dispute the insurer characterises every aspect as a private relationship matter and the work connection to the location, system or timing is disputed. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Physical and psychological treatment records. Diagnosis and functional effect connected to the workplace event. If treatment is disputed after a domestic violence entering the workplace, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a domestic violence entering the workplace may turn on safe work location, contact details, roster privacy and access control and work-from-home safety and whether another site is available. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

A lasting physical injury is assessed under the NSW method for the affected body system only after the condition is sufficiently stable. The event label does not predict a WPI percentage. Primary psychological impairment is assessed separately under the NSW psychiatric impairment method when the condition is permanent and the legal pathway is established. Diagnosis alone does not determine WPI. Any WPI assessment after a domestic violence entering the workplace occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

A primary psychological injury is the psychological condition said to arise directly from workplace events. For claims first notified on or after 1 July 2026, the event must fit a relevant-event category and satisfy the additional connection and causation requirements. A secondary psychological injury arises as a consequence of a physical injury, for example depression associated with pain, surgery or loss of mobility after an assault injury. The 2026 primary-injury reforms do not apply to secondary psychological injuries in the same way. The distinction depends on medical causation and the accepted injury history, not simply on which symptoms were noticed first.

A police, SafeWork, workplace, discrimination, Fair Work or protective-order process may exist alongside workers compensation. Those processes have different purposes and do not decide workers compensation automatically. A civil, victims-support or other claim may require separate advice depending on the person involved and circumstances. It should not be described as part of workers compensation without checking eligibility. These issues are separate from workers compensation and depend on the particular facts.

For a domestic violence entering the workplace, assistance may involve identify the event category, incident date and claim pathway before responding to an insurer and organise incident, safety, medical, psychological and capacity evidence without circulating unnecessary private material. The purpose is to identify the disputed decision and the evidence needed for the next step, not to promise an outcome.