Workers Compensation Case: Ronil Kumar

A Fijian worker, Ronil Kumar, beats up wife, went to jail for nine months, then tried to pin his post‑release psych issues on “workplace bullying” to get workers’ compensation and the Commission wasn’t buying it.

The backstory: bullying, booze, and a jail sentence

Kumar worked for Campbelltown City Council and claimed he was subjected to daily racist harassment and name‑calling by a colleague, leading to panic attacks, weight loss, and even a suicide attempt in 2023.

HR got involved, the bully was moved, then allegedly started targeting him again, including with false allegations. An investigation later found Kumar had in fact slashed the colleague’s tyres, earning him a first and final warning.

Months later, after hearing a rumour the colleague might return, Kumar got heavily intoxicated at a friend’s house, went home and assaulted his wife, was arrested, and jailed for nine months.

While in prison he developed new, more severe psychological symptoms, and on release his GP certified him unfit for work with PTSD, depression, and anxiety said to flow from workplace bullying, “exacerbated” by prison trauma.

The workers comp claim: blaming jail time on work

After getting out, Kumar lodged a workers compensation claim for psychological injury, arguing the bullying set off a “cascade” that led to the domestic violence incident, jail, and his current incapacity.

Campbelltown City Council denied liability for incapacity, arguing any accepted psych injury from bullying never stopped him working, and that his real incapacity came from a separate prison‑related psychiatric injury.

The employer also said the alleged rumour about the co‑worker returning had nothing but Kumar’s word linking it to his decision to get drunk and assault his wife.

Expert evidence: “attempt to rationalise his assault”

The Council’s psychiatrist said Kumar’s story – that workplace bullying somehow explained away his domestic violence and jail time – was “untenable on reasonable psychiatric grounds”.

The expert described it as an attempt to rationalise the assault on his wife so he’d be “less liable” for the consequences by blaming the workplace instead of his own choices.

The Commission accepted that from mid‑2023 he did suffer a compensable psychological injury from work interactions, and that employment was the main contributing factor to that injury.

Why his workers comp claim still failed

Senior Member Homan drew a hard line between “injury” and “incapacity”: yes, Kumar had a compensable psych injury from bullying, but no, that injury was not what made him unfit for work.

The evidence showed his real incapacity kicked in after prison, with a fresh PTSD diagnosis tied to incarceration, making it impossible to say his work‑related injury was what stopped him working.

Crucially, he hadn’t been incapacitated for work at any stage before the assault and prison sentence – his bullying injury existed, but it didn’t disable him.

Because weekly workers compensation hinges on incapacity caused by the compensable injury, his claim for payments was knocked out and his case dismissed in Kumar v Campbelltown City Council [2026] NSWPIC 45.

A psych injury from bullying might get recognised, but if your actual inability to work comes from going to jail for bashing your wife, don’t expect workers compensation to pick up the tab.