Scaffold fall at work: NSW workers compensation guide

Scaffold fall at work can occur through falling from an open edge or through an incomplete platform and a plank moving, breaking or not spanning the intended support. 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 scaffolders, builders, painters, bricklayers and façade workers and subcontractors using a scaffold erected or changed by another business. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

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

After a scaffold fall at work, immediate reporting and safety records may include site preservation and photographs of the bay, deck, guardrails, access and tie pattern and scaffold handover, inspection and alteration records. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• Site diary, exclusion records and SafeWork notification or inspector material 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 scaffold fall at work, the first evidence to preserve includes scaffold plan, design and load-class information relevant to the affected bay and written handover confirmation and competent-person inspection records, including the inspection history after handover and any alteration. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• SWMS, inductions, toolbox records and who authorised alterations.
• Witness locations, site CCTV and subcontractor records.
• Hospital records documenting height, landing and multiple diagnoses.

Medical and psychological evidence after a scaffold fall at work may include first-aid, ambulance and early clinical histories describing the scaffold fall at work sequence and diagnosis-specific examination, imaging and specialist evidence for spinal fracture, traumatic brain injury, pelvis injury, multiple injuries. 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 scaffold fall at work, an insurer may dispute whether the platform had been altered after handover and which employer or contractor controlled the scaffold and task. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Multi-trauma care may involve surgery, rehabilitation and separate specialists for several body systems. Disputed treatment should be tied to each accepted injury and the worker’s recovery and function. If treatment is disputed after a scaffold fall at work, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a scaffold fall at work may turn on height exposure, climbing, uneven platforms, PPE, lifting and site access and whether a proposed ground-level task remains psychologically and physically safe. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

WPI may involve several stable body systems and permitted combined values, but the scaffold height or seriousness of the event does not predict the final percentage. The accident mechanism, surgery, imaging finding or pain report alone does not establish a WPI percentage. Any WPI assessment after a scaffold 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.

A principal contractor, scaffold supplier or other site controller may need investigation in addition to the statutory claim. 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 scaffold fall at work, assistance may involve separate the scaffold 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.