Electric shock or electrocution at work: NSW workers compensation guide

Electric shock or electrocution at work can occur through direct or indirect contact with energised parts and current travelling through a tool, cable, structure or wet environment. 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 electricians, apprentices and electrical maintenance workers and construction, utility and plant workers near services. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a electric shock or electrocution at work may identify burns injury and nerve injury. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a electric shock or electrocution at work, immediate reporting and safety records may include isolation and electrical-status records without disturbing a notifiable scene except as legally permitted and equipment, circuit, lockout, test and inspection records. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• Emergency, cardiac monitoring and SafeWork notification records where applicable.
• If the facts may meet the WHS Act definition of a notifiable incident, the SafeWork notification reference, inspector correspondence and scene records, without delaying emergency assistance or other action permitted by section 39.

For a electric shock or electrocution at work, the first evidence to preserve includes electrical drawings, work permit, SWMS and service-location information and isolation, test-before-touch and lockout records, together with RCD test records where relevant. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Actual tool, lead, switchboard or plant preserved for expert inspection.
• Witnesses, photographs and any fall sequence.
• Burns, cardiac, neurological, hearing and psychological medical records.

Medical and psychological evidence after a electric shock or electrocution at work may include first-aid, ambulance and early clinical histories describing the electric shock or electrocution at work sequence and diagnosis-specific examination, imaging and specialist evidence for burns injury, nerve injury, cardiac or internal-organ injury, spinal fracture. A diagnosis alone may not answer causation or capacity: the records should explain the work event, symptoms, treatment and practical restrictions.

• Certificates of capacity stating functional restrictions, hours and treatment rather than only a diagnosis.
• Operative, rehabilitation and psychological records where the event caused surgery, prolonged recovery or trauma symptoms.

After a electric shock or electrocution at work, an insurer may dispute whether electrical contact occurred and through which path and whether delayed cardiac, nerve, hearing or psychological symptoms are related. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Electrical injuries may need burns, cardiac and neurological assessment even when external marks are limited. Any fall caused by shock should be investigated and treated as a separate injury mechanism. If treatment is disputed after a electric shock or electrocution at work, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a electric shock or electrocution at work may turn on live electrical work, switchboards, height, concentration, tool use and trauma response and whether genuinely de-energised alternative work is available. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

Stable burns, scarring, neurological, cardiac, hearing or fall-related impairment is assessed by body system; voltage alone does not determine WPI. The accident mechanism, surgery, imaging finding or pain report alone does not establish a WPI percentage. Any WPI assessment after a electric shock or electrocution at work occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

Defective products, utility controllers or other contractors may create separate legal issues. Any separate occupiers-liability, product, TPD or work injury damages issue is distinct from statutory workers compensation and depends on its own evidence and legal criteria. These issues are separate from workers compensation and depend on the particular facts.

For a electric shock or electrocution at work, assistance may involve separate the electric shock or electrocution at work mechanism from the diagnoses and identify any missing incident record and compare the insurer’s written reasons with medical, treatment and work-capacity evidence. The purpose is to identify the disputed decision and the evidence needed for the next step, not to promise an outcome.