Fall on stairs at work: NSW workers compensation guide

Fall on stairs at work can occur through missing or slipping from a tread while ascending or descending and losing balance because a hand was occupied or a handrail was unavailable. 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 office, retail and hospitality workers moving between levels and construction and maintenance workers using temporary stairs. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a fall on stairs at work may identify ankle injury and knee injury. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a fall on stairs at work, immediate reporting and safety records may include photographs and measurements of treads, nosings, lighting and handrails and CCTV and access records fixing the time and direction of travel. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• The item being carried, footwear and any wetness, damage or loose covering.
• 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 fall on stairs at work, the first evidence to preserve includes maintenance and inspection records for the staircase and prior incident or defect reports and later repair records. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Witness descriptions of the first missed step and final landing.
• Ambulance or hospital notes documenting the fall height and impact sequence.

Medical and psychological evidence after a fall on stairs at work may include first-aid, ambulance and early clinical histories describing the fall on stairs at work sequence and diagnosis-specific examination, imaging and specialist evidence for ankle injury, knee injury, spinal fracture, head injury. 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 fall on stairs at work, an insurer may dispute whether the fall occurred on work premises or in the course of work and whether the mechanism supports each claimed body-part injury. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Multiple impacts may require separate imaging and treatment plans for head, spine and limb injuries. Surgery or rehabilitation requests should connect each proposed treatment to a diagnosed consequence of the stair fall. If treatment is disputed after a fall on stairs at work, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a fall on stairs at work may turn on stairs, carrying, balance, prolonged standing and emergency egress and whether a ground-floor or lift-accessible role is genuinely available and medically suitable. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

WPI is assessed for the stable diagnosed consequences in each permitted body system; the number of stairs does not itself set an impairment percentage. The accident mechanism, surgery, imaging finding or pain report alone does not establish a WPI percentage. Any WPI assessment after a fall on stairs at work occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

A building controller other than the employer may be relevant to a separate occupiers-liability investigation. 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 fall on stairs at work, assistance may involve separate the fall on stairs 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.