Doctors cleared him to work, but the workshop kept him out

Mark Panazzolo, a qualified heavy vehicle diesel mechanic, joined Don’s Auto, a small family-run workshop in Adelaide, in July 2019. In October 2020 he was injured outside work and broke his left forearm, which needed surgery. By February 2021 a hospital orthopaedic doctor wrote that he could return to work at full capacity.

The owners wanted a full clearance. A physiotherapist they engaged found he could return “in a restricted manner”, avoiding heavy sustained gripping and carrying no more than 22.7 kg occasionally, with physio and a review in six to eight weeks. The workshop read that as a no, said he must pay for the physio himself, and its trade association wrote that because the injury was not work-related there was no obligation to provide suitable duties. With no income he could not afford the physio. In August 2021 he resigned.

He sued under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, which requires employers to make reasonable adjustments for a disability unless doing so would cause unjustifiable hardship. Judge Brown held the Act applied even though the injury had nothing to do with work. He found the workshop had put the burden on Mr Panazzolo “to establish, to its satisfaction, that he was no longer disabled”, and he doubted the owner’s claim, raised for the first time at the hearing, that he had offered to pay for physio.

Only fairly modest adjustments were needed, and even for a small “mum and dad” business they were not an unjustifiable hardship. The judge described the workshop’s approach as “clumsy rather than malicious; ill-informed rather than calculated”.

He awarded $10,000 for hurt and distress, $30,000 for lost wages and $4,000 interest. Lost wages were limited because his later unemployment was not the workshop’s fault.