Did you know that there have been changes to the defence to misrepresenting employment as an independent contractor arrangement? Its important that you are across this key change under the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act that started from 27 February 2024.
The Act now prohibits an employer form intentionally misclassifying an employee as a contractor, this is commonly referred to as ‘sham contracting’. The Act previously provided a defence to sham contracting if an employer proves that they did not know and were not reckless as to whether the individual should have been engaged as an employee rather than a contractor.
This defence has been replaced and narrowed, so that an employer now bears the onus of proving that they ‘reasonably believed’ that an individual could be validly engaged as a contractor. Engaging in sham contracting gives rise to civil penalties.
It’s important that you are across these changes. Rest assured we are going to do a deeper dive into sham contracting, independent contractor unfair contract term disputes and other key changes to the Fair Work Act at our webinar on 17 April 2024 — it’s not too late to join our webinar here
Need some advice or support on how to manage this in the workplace or maybe it’s time for a review of your casual employment contracts?
South Australian Business Chamber members can call the Business Advice Hotline on (08) 8300 0000 (select option 1).
