The case
The applicant, Keech, was injured at work at the age of 66. RiskCover, the insurance company of the Metropolitan Health Service, accepted liability and paid compensation under the ''Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981 (WA)'' (the WA Act). The WA Act provided different schemes of payment whereby workers injured before attaining the age of 64 would be entitled to compensation until they turned 65, and workers injured after attaining this age would be entitled to compensation for a year after the date of the injury. Keech argued that by paying her compensation for the period prescribed by the WA Act, the Metropolitan Health Service had treated her less favourably than a younger employee who incurred a workplace injury at the same time as she did. She also argued that the conduct of the Metropolitan Health Service was not exempt from the Age Discrimination Act as it was not in direct compliance with the WA Act - that is, the WA Act prescribed a date at which entitlements to compensation could cease, but it did not oblige employers to stop paying at this time.The decision
Siopis J considered that the Metropolitan Health Service's conduct was unlikely to constitute