The High Court has ruled in favour of a deceased man’s dependents in a long-running compensation dispute, setting aside the Employment Relations Tribunal’s 2023 decision that had dismissed the claim as time-barred.
In a 19 November ruling, Justice Savenaca Banuve found that the Tribunal had erred in its interpretation of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, particularly on the question of when a claim for compensation is legally considered to have been made.
The deceased worker, Samuela Donu, died on 21 January 2017 while employed by South Pacific Waste Recyclers.
Although the compensation claim was formally filed in the Tribunal in 2021, the employer had been notified of the accident on the day of Donu’s death, and the official claim form was lodged within weeks — well within the three-year statutory period.
Lawyers for South Pacific Waste Recyclers argued that the Tribunal had correctly applied the law, but Justice Banuve rejected this, ruling that the Tribunal had “misconstrued the statutory scheme” and adopted an incorrect interpretation of what constitutes a valid claim.
He emphasised that the Workmen’s Compensation system is “form-driven” and designed to simplify the process.
The case has now been sent back to the Employment Relations Tribunal for a full hearing of the compensation claim filed in 2017.
