An Altona bank teller has lost a work compensation claim that she suffered hand and shoulder injuries from carrying money bags and counting cash.
The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard that the woman, 57, made her claim for a “right hand, arm and shoulder condition with bad headaches due to pain”.
This was allegedly caused by “counting money, notes and coin, picking up coin bags and handling and doing my daily job as a CSO [customer service officer]”.
The woman stated she was repeatedly handling bags of coins that needed to be emptied from the coin machine and which she then carried some 15 metres to a safe.
She estimated each bag weighed six to 11 kilograms.
She said she did this two or three times a day and would sometimes carry three calico bags at a time.
In one incident report, she stated the cause of her injuries was “handling bulk coin, poor design of safe, bending, stretching and on knees to get to bottom of safe”.
She claimed to have been incapacitated for employment since December 2013 and that this was likely to continue.
Magistrate Phillip Ginnane dismissed the plaintiff’s claim, saying he was not satisfied that her shoulder pain or carpal tunnel syndrome were caused by work.
“The weight of the medical evidence I have referred to is against such a finding.”
