Tribunal refuses suitable employment order – State’s largest employer successfully defends s18 application

In the recent decision of Oldman v The Department for Education & Child Development[1], the President of the South Australian Employment Tribunal (Tribunal) made a number of important statements of general principle in relation to the scope of the statutory obligation imposed on employers pursuant to section 18 of the Return to Work Act 2014 (SA) (RTWA 2014). The previous leading decision was Walmsley’s case[2]. Facts The applicant was incapacitated for her usual employment as a full time primary school teacher as a result of a compensable hip injury. The applicant sought an order pursuant to section 18 of the RTWA 2014 that her employer provide her with suitable employment as a full-time school counsellor, having rejected the employer’s offer of employment as a school services officer level 2. The President of the Tribunal, Justice Dolphin, observed that the specific employment nominated by the applicant in the application ‘will frame…