The worker, 47, claimed she was entitled to compensation because she was "working at the time of her injury", but St Michaels argued the fall could have been intentional.

The Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal heard the case and delivered its ruling in Hobart last month.

The disability support worker and team leader suffered the injury on July 1 while taking two participants with a disability bowling at Launceston Lanes in Kings Meadows.

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She claimed she "went to get a ball, slipped/tripped on strip, lost balance" and then fell head-first into a counter, with her shoulder, arm and elbow hitting the ground.

A coworker - the only witness to the fall - said the worker tripped on a raised edge between the lino and carpet, and then stumbled before colliding head-first with the counter. CCTV did not capture the trip.

She was treated at the Launceston General Hospital where an x-ray confirmed a spinal fracture and she underwent surgery.

St Michaels requested Link Securities investigate the claim, which described the distance of 5.1 metres between the trip and the counter as "implausible" at walking pace.

A public health physician and occupational medicine consultant, relied upon by St Michaels, also stated the "mechanism of injury is most unusual and is not consistent ... with a simple trip".

"I am not prepared to comment on her flight and fright response, and whether it was deliberate or not, save to say that alternative evasive action should have been well within her capacity if she had been moving at walking pace before tripping on the carpet edge," his report stated.

The tribunal heard that the worker had made nine compensation claims against St Michaels. The organisation claimed the worker "may have had motive to gain time off work and staged the incident".

The worker claimed St Michaels had withheld certain documents from the tribunal that would not have assisted its case, there was no evidence that she "intended to hurt herself" and the evidence only indicated she was moving faster than walking pace prior to the trip.

Chief Commissioner Alison Clues said St Michaels had proven that there were "identified deficiencies or weaknesses" in the worker's claim that could be rejected following a contested hearing.

As a result, St Michaels was not required to pay compensation.