In considering “ordinary recess” for a lunchtime injury, the employee's flextime provisions should be examined.
The usual public service provisions allow for a flexible lunch period of:
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30 minutes minimum, and
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2 hours (between 12:00 and 2:00 pm) maximum.
Basically, any injury that occurs within that time frame should be covered as an ordinary recess as it is classified as a 'temporary absence', with the employee intending to return to work.
However, where the employee extends his or her lunch break into core hours (say, from 12:00 until 3:00 pm), then there may be strong argument to suggest that the ordinary recess fell within the first two hours of the lunch break only.
The original intent of the introduction of 'ordinary recess' into the Act was to cover the increasing number of lunchtime sporting injuries which were occurring in activities which were seen to be employment linked. Initially, investigation of such activities was both time consuming and difficult to decide.