A Pilates instructor who was hit by a bicycle while taking a walk between shifts has won an appeal seeking a review of the decision to deny her workers’ compensation. 

Alison Priolo was working at a YMCA on the grounds of Scotch College in Adelaide in April last year when she took the walk during an unpaid 30-minute break.

ReturntoWorkSA rejected her claim for compensation, saying her injuries did not arise from her employment. The YMCA supported that decision.

Ms Priolo took her case to the SA Employment Tribunal, which upheld the rejection, and then appealed to the tribunal’s full bench.

She originally argued she was working while walking because she needed to stay warm and fit for her next class and, when hit by the cyclist, she was returning to her car to collect run sheets for the session from her bag.

The full bench says the first hearing did not resolve whether these sheets were required.

It has allowed a review for further determination, restricted to whether Ms Priolo needed to return to her car to collect the items.

The YMCA said Ms Priolo did not need to leave the premises and could have stored the sheets in a secure locker on-site.

Ms Priolo, who started the job the previous month, said she did not know about the lockers.

At the first hearing, a judge said there were work-related aspects to Ms Priolo going for a walk, but she was not complying with an implicit instruction from her employer and retrieving her bag was not akin to an employment duty.

Read the appeal judgment here.