The Queensland Court of Appeal upheld the finding that a family member working in a family company's cane harvesting business was a 'worker' under s 11 of the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld), where a contract of employment was properly inferred from conduct including regular salary payments, PAYG withholding, superannuation contributions, and payroll records, notwithstanding the absence of any written or express oral contract. A retrospective wages reversal effected for tax minimisation purposes after the injury did not negate the existence of the employment contract at the date of injury, nor did it establish a sham or lack of intention to be legally bound. The Court also held that signing directors' declarations in error on isolated occasions, without reading them and where they were not provided to any third party, was insufficient to establish that the worker was 'acting in the position of a director' so as to be excluded from the definition of worker under Schedule 2, Part 2, Item 1(a), particularly where the person had no role in corporate governance, financial management, or administrative decision-making.
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