Roof fall at work: NSW workers compensation guide

Roof fall at work can occur through slipping on a pitched, wet, dusty or deteriorated roof and falling from an unprotected edge or while stepping between roof sections. 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 roofers, solar installers, electricians and air-conditioning technicians and builders, painters and maintenance workers. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a roof fall at work may identify spinal fracture and head injury. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a roof fall at work, immediate reporting and safety records may include drone or ground photographs of the roof area, edge and access point where safe and lawful and work-at-height plan, SWMS, anchor or fall-arrest inspection records. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• Weather, task allocation and material-delivery records.
• 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 roof fall at work, the first evidence to preserve includes roof drawings or job photographs showing pitch, openings and fragile areas and records showing whether a fall-prevention device, work-positioning system or fall-arrest system was selected and why. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Harness, lanyard, anchor, rescue-procedure and access-equipment records where relevant.
• Witnesses, site diary and SafeWork records for any notifiable incident.
• Medical records connecting the landing mechanism to each injury.

Medical and psychological evidence after a roof fall at work may include first-aid, ambulance and early clinical histories describing the roof fall at work sequence and diagnosis-specific examination, imaging and specialist evidence for spinal fracture, head injury, pelvis injury, fracture 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 roof fall at work, an insurer may dispute whether work required entry onto the roof and who directed it and whether later spinal, head or psychological symptoms are consequences of the fall. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Fracture, spinal and head injuries may require surgery and long rehabilitation. Requests should explain each diagnosis, treatment objective and whether the condition has stabilised. If treatment is disputed after a roof fall at work, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a roof fall at work may turn on roof access, ladders, balance, carrying materials, sun and weather exposure and whether alternative duties genuinely remove height risk and match certified restrictions. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

Permanent fracture, spinal, neurological and limb effects may be assessed separately where permitted; the fall distance does not establish WPI. The accident mechanism, surgery, imaging finding or pain report alone does not establish a WPI percentage. Any WPI assessment after a roof fall at work occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

Other contractors, occupiers or defective access equipment may create separate legal issues requiring evidence preservation. 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 roof fall at work, assistance may involve separate the roof fall 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.