The fact that payments were made pursuant to a legal obligation upon the employer is the critical consideration; an absence on workers compensation is not an 'excluded period' within the meaning of s22.

An employer can be liable for an injury to an employee in a personal injury and workers' compensation claim while the employee remains employed. Should medical advice change to permit return to work, the employer is expected to take appropriate steps and make appropriate adjustments to enable return to work.

An employer's demand that an employee obtain a medical certificate from a doctor of the employer's choosing, to enable direct discussion of the employee's medical condition, is not a reasonable or lawful direction, as the treating practitioner is not obliged or permitted to discuss medical conditions without express employee consent.

Provisions in Part 4 of the Workplace Injury and Compensation Act 2013 (Vic), including ss103-105 requiring employers to provide suitable employment, plan return to work, and consult, do not operate to re-establish or reanimate a dead employment relationship that has already ended.

Part 4 of the WIRC Act is concerned with the return to work of injured workers and is simply not concerned with the dismissal of an employee for misconduct or other reasons unrelated to a workplace injury.

A statutory duty to provide work does not deem an employment relationship to exist if one did not exist in fact or is not otherwise ordered by force of law; an employer may breach the statutory duty at a given time but the statute does not deem employment to exist if one had not existed in fact.