FIFO Workers’ Compensation in Queensland: Are You Covered at Camp, in Transit and Off Shift?

The basic test: arising out of or in the course of employment

An injury is covered if it arises out of, or in the course of, your employment and your employment is a significant contributing factor to it (section 32 of the Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld)). The Act also says some injuries count as arising out of or in the course of employment. For recess and journey injuries, your work does not need to have contributed to the injury at all:

• injuries on the day you attend work, while you are at the workplace doing something for your employer, or away from it in the course of your employment (section 34). For these, employment must still be a significant contributing factor.
• injuries during an ordinary recess, such as a meal break, unless you voluntarily took on an abnormal risk (section 34)
• injuries on the journey between your home and your place of employment (section 35).

Travelling to and from site

The drive to the airport and the charter flight

Section 35 covers a journey between your home and your place of employment, and for these journeys employment does not have to be a contributing factor. The journey starts or ends at the boundary of the land your home is on. For a FIFO worker, the drive to the airport, the charter flight and the bus from the airstrip to site can form part of that journey, depending on the facts.

Is the camp my home?

For the journey provisions, “home” means your usual place of residence, but it also includes a place where you were temporarily living before the journey started, or intended to live temporarily after it ended (section 35(4)). That means the daily bus or drive between camp and the pit, plant or rig can also be a journey that is covered.

When a journey claim can fail

Section 36 of the Act removes cover for a journey injury if the event happens:

• during or after a substantial delay before you start the journey
• during or after a substantial interruption of, or deviation from, the journey
• while you are driving and committing the offence of driving under the influence or dangerous driving, if that was the major significant factor causing the crash.

A delay, interruption or deviation does not count against you if it was connected with your employment or beyond your control. In deciding whether it was substantial, the insurer looks at the reason for it, how long it took compared with the journey, and for a detour, the distance compared with the journey.

At camp between shifts

Time at camp between shifts is generally not treated as a journey, and may not be an ordinary recess. Whether an injury there is covered depends on how closely it is connected to your employment.

The leading Queensland decision is Workers’ Compensation Regulator v Civeo Pty Ltd [2016] ICQ 1. A worker employed at a mining accommodation village was assaulted in his allocated room there while he was asleep. The Industrial Court held the injury was covered. The employer had encouraged him to stay in the camp, there was a practical need for him to sleep there, and he was assaulted while doing the very thing the employer intended him to do.

The court applied the approach from the High Court’s decision in Comcare v PVYW: an injury in an interval between work periods can be covered if it happens at a place, or while doing an activity, that the employer induced or encouraged. In practice:

These cases turn on their facts, and a rejected claim can be reviewed and appealed.

Off shift and away from camp

Days off at home between swings are generally your own time. An injury then is unlikely to be covered unless something connects it to work, such as travel your employer required. An aggravation of an existing injury can be covered where employment is a significant contributing factor to it (section 32).

Psychological injury on FIFO rosters

Long rosters, isolation, fatigue, bullying and harassment in a closed camp environment can all cause psychological injury. A psychological injury can be covered if employment is a significant contributing factor (section 32). A claim is also excluded if it arises from reasonable management action taken in a reasonable way, such as a fair performance process.

Employers must manage psychosocial risks, including fatigue, remote or isolated work and poor support, under the Managing the risk of psychosocial hazards at work Code of Practice 2022. Read more in our guides to psychological injury claims and bullying claims.

Live in Queensland, work in another state?

Only one state’s scheme applies to your employment. Section 113 of the Act uses a “state of connection” test, applied in order:

1. the state where you usually work in that employment
2. if there is no single state, the state where you are usually based for that employment
3. if that still gives no single state, the state where your employer’s principal place of business in Australia is.

So a Brisbane resident who flies to a Western Australian mine and usually works only there will usually be covered by the Western Australian scheme. Workers who move between states are harder to place: in Stratford North Pty Ltd v Workers’ Compensation Regulator [2025] ICQ 4, an interstate truck driver was found to be usually based in Queensland. Get advice early, because time limits differ between states.

What WorkCover pays

• medical, hospital, surgery and rehabilitation costs, including some travel for treatment
• weekly payments while you cannot work, based on your normal weekly earnings from the 12 months before the injury
• a lump sum for permanent impairment once the injury is stable and stationary.

WorkSafe Queensland’s guidance says living-away-from-home, travel and meal allowances are not counted in normal weekly earnings, so FIFO weekly payments can be lower than expected. Regular overtime and penalty rates are counted.

Suing your employer or someone else

If your employer’s negligence caused the injury, you may also claim damages. FIFO examples include unsafe transport, poorly maintained camp facilities, rosters that ignore fatigue, and failing to deal with known bullying or violence. Claims against someone other than your employer, such as a camp operator, a principal contractor or a transport company, follow the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (Qld). If you work at a mine, see our guide to mining injury compensation, which covers suing the mine operator.

If your impairment rating is under 20%, accepting WorkCover’s lump sum ends your right to sue your employer. At 20% or more, you can take the lump sum and still sue. WorkCover payments are generally refunded from damages (section 270).

What a claim is worth depends on the injury and your impairment rating, your FIFO earnings, whether you can go back to site work, your age, whether anyone was negligent, and any share of blame on you (section 305H). Our claim estimator explains how Queensland damages are made up.

Time limits

WorkCover6 months Damages3 years Non-employer9 months notice

WorkCover claim. Lodge within six months after your entitlement arises, usually when a doctor first assesses the injury (section 131). WorkCover can accept a late claim for a mistake, absence from Queensland or other reasonable cause, but it does not have to.

Damages. Proceedings must generally start within three years of the injury (Limitation of Actions Act 1974 (Qld), section 11), after a notice of claim for damages. For a claim against someone other than your employer, Part 1 of the notice of claim is due within nine months of the injury, or one month after you first instruct a lawyer and the person you are claiming against is identified, whichever is earlier. See time limits for workers’ compensation claims.

What to do if you are hurt on a FIFO roster

1. Step 1 Get medical treatment on site or at the nearest hospital, and see your own doctor when you get home.
2. Step 2 Report the injury to your supervisor or the camp and make sure it is recorded, even if it happened after hours.
3. Step 3 Write down where you were, what you were doing, and why you were there, including any roster, flight or bus details.
4. Step 4 Get names of witnesses and keep photos, messages and incident reports.
5. Step 5 Lodge your WorkCover claim with a work capacity certificate. See our step-by-step guide to WorkCover claims.
6. Step 6 If the claim is rejected, or you are offered a lump sum, get legal advice before you respond.