Woman suing her late dad’s Melbourne employer over COVID-19 death

A grieving daughter is taking a Williamstown-based company to court over the COVID-related death of her father.

Michael Sultana, 51, died in October last year, two weeks after contracting COVID-19.

His daughter, Chloe, is suing her late father’s employer Mr Whiteboards.

The Herald Sun reports the grieving daughter says her father’s workplace didn’t require staff to wear face masks to prevent transmission of the virus.

Mr Whiteboards has previously rejected Ms Sultana’s dependency compensation claim.

President of the Australian Bar Association, Matt Collins QC, says while the case will “depend precisely on what happened in this workplace”, it’s “not hopeless”.

“A lot of people think to get … compensation as a dependent of someone who is injured, that the death has to occur at work. That’s not right,” he told Ross and Russel.

“It’s enough that the death has arisen out of or is sufficiently related to employment.”

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