Shen v National Australia Bank Ltd

The Victorian Court of Appeal held that s 44(1) of the SRC Act bars common law damages claims against a licensed corporation where the employee's injuries arose from the employer's handling of bullying complaints, internal investigations, return-to-work processes, and redundancy — even though the employee had ceased performing work duties years earlier — because such matters are incidental to the employment relationship and thus sustained 'in the course of employment'. The Court identified but expressly declined to resolve a potential lacuna in s 44(1), namely that the provision refers only to injuries 'in the course of' employment and does not expressly cover injuries 'arising out of' employment or contributed to by employment to a significant degree under ss 5A and 5B, leaving open whether s 44(1) bars claims for injuries compensable under the SRC Act but not sustained 'in the course of' employment.