Pushing or pulling injury: NSW workers compensation guide

The loaded weight, start force and whether wheels or casters rolled freely. Push or pull distance, floor gradient, thresholds, corners and handle height. The task history should quantify force, weight, repetition, duration, posture or exposure rather than rely on a label such as “overuse”.

Warehouse pickers moving cages, pallet jacks or trolleys. Healthcare and cleaning workers moving beds, bins or equipment. Rosters and role records can identify who performed or observed the same work cycle.

Back injury. Shoulder injury. A symptom label does not replace a diagnosis or a reasoned opinion linking that diagnosis to the measured work history.

Trolley or bed make, load list, rated capacity and maintenance history. Floor plan, ramp gradient, threshold and route photographs. Early records should show when symptoms began, changed and were reported, even where there was no single accident date.

• Dispatch, cleaning or patient-transfer records showing frequency and distance.

Trolley or bed make, load list, rated capacity and maintenance history. Floor plan, ramp gradient, threshold and route photographs. The strongest task history connects objective work records with the symptom and treatment chronology.

• Dispatch, cleaning or patient-transfer records showing frequency and distance.
• Witness, CCTV and incident reports for any jam or sudden movement.

History recording whether the worker pushed or pulled, hand position and direction of force. Clinical findings distinguishing back, shoulder, elbow and knee consequences. Medical causation evidence should address the diagnosis, measured work exposure, pre-existing conditions and relevant non-work factors.

• Prior symptoms and whether function changed after the task or across repeated shifts.

The trolley was within rated capacity or moved easily when later inspected. Another worker completed the same route without symptoms. The insurer’s written reasons should be answered with evidence directed to the actual causation or eligibility issue.

Rehabilitation should be linked to the diagnosed joint or spinal condition and the actual push/pull demands. An ergonomic report can inform task restrictions but does not replace clinical diagnosis or medical causation evidence. Treatment and restrictions should be tied to the accepted diagnosis and the work factor that needs to be reduced or avoided.

Restrictions may need to state maximum trolley load, starting force, route, gradient and repetitions. A proposed role may remain unsuitable if it uses the same poorly maintained equipment or route. Sustainable capacity depends on the complete shift and repeated exposure, not whether one movement can be demonstrated once.

Any WPI assessment follows the stable diagnosis for the affected body system. A trolley load or force measurement supports exposure analysis but is not itself an impairment rating. The assessment must follow the method for the accepted diagnosis, such as Back injury, Shoulder injury, Elbow injury. WPI is assessed after stabilisation using the NSW method for the accepted diagnosis; exposure duration or pain alone does not set a percentage.

Defective hired equipment or premises controlled by another business may raise a separate issue requiring prompt preservation of the trolley and route. Any SafeWork NSW, product, negligence or insurance issue must be investigated under its own rules; it does not replace proof of the workers compensation claim. Any other compensation or insurance pathway remains separate and has its own eligibility rules.

Build a dated work history using measurable facts such as the loaded weight, start force and whether wheels or casters rolled freely; push or pull distance, floor gradient, thresholds, corners and handle height. Match the diagnosed condition and symptom chronology to workplace records, prior history and relevant non-work factors. The purpose is to match the disputed decision to reliable work and medical evidence, not to promise an outcome.