Checklist: Determining Whether Your Worker is a Contractor

Contractors are not employees, they conduct their own trade or business and contract with you on that basis. The legal status of the relationship between you and a worker is determined by:

• the nature of the work;
• the manner in which the work is performed; and
• what you and the worker both intend to be the basis of your relationship.

It is an offence under the Fair Work Act 2009 to represent that you have a contractor arrangement with a worker when you are actually in an employment relationship; referred to as sham contracting. Use this checklist to determine whether a worker is conducting their own business and therefore, what type of legal employment relationship you have with them.