In general, any physical or mental injury counts as a workplace injury if it ‘arises out of or in the course of employment’.

The phrase 'arising out of employment' means that something about the employment must have caused the injury, for example, the tasks, equipment or surroundings.

The phrase 'in the course of employment' is wider and requires only a temporal (time) relationship with employment. The phrase is intended to cover those injuries which:

  • are not directly caused by the nature of duties for which a worker is employed
  • happen at the time the worker was working either by an accident in the workplace (such as a falling object), or while the worker was doing some incidental task or duty that the worker could be reasonably expected or authorised to do.

Note that the definition of an injury includes: 

  • a disease, which includes any physical or mental ailment, disorder, defect or morbid condition whether it occurred suddenly or developed gradually
  • the aggravation, acceleration, exacerbation or recurrence of any pre-existing disease.

In the case of an injury incorporating a disease, or a recurrence, aggravation, exacerbation or deterioration of a pre-existing injury or disease, the legislation has stipulated that work must either have been a ‘contributing factor’ or a ‘significant contributing factor’, depending on when the injury was sustained.

For ‘heart attack and stroke injuries’ as defined in the legislation, specific provisions have applied to these types of ‘injuries’ since 2003. Employment must be a significant contributing factor, irrespective of whether the injury constitutes ‘sudden physiological change or is connected with a pre-existing condition or disease or not’.

In Victoria, workplace injuries sustained on or after 1 July 2014 are covered under the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013, which came into effect on 1 July 2014. It replaced two previous Acts, including the Accident Compensation Act 1985.

However, injuries sustained before 1 July 2014 are covered under the Accident Compensation Act 1985.

Injuries arising out of or in the course of any employment entitle the worker to compensation, and this applies to casual workers, shift workers, as well as part- and full-time employees.

When is a worker not entitled to workers compensation?

An injury that is incurred while a worker is travelling from home to or from work is not covered by workers compensation in Victoria. Nor are injuries that are incurred while the worker is travelling to or from an educational institution that the worker is attending for an employment-related purpose, or to and from a place for various purposes relating to a previously compensable injury.

However, an injury that occurs during a journey is deemed to arise out of or in the course of employment if the employee is required to travel for work.

An employee is not entitled to compensation if it is a mental injury caused wholly or predominantly by any management action taken on reasonable grounds in a reasonable manner, a decision by the employer to take or not take management action, or any expectation by the employee that a management action would or would not be taken.

An employee is also not entitled to workers compensation if the injury was purposefully self-inflicted.