Whether plaintiff is a common law employee or ‘deemed worker’ of the defendant
Reliability of witnesses
Quick Take
1Where the contractual relationship is oral and informal, contemporaneous documentary evidence (tax returns, bank statements, tax invoices) may be decisive in characterising the relationship, particularly where oral testimony is unreliable.
2A person who conducts an independent business supplying labour, flowers and foliage to multiple clients under their own ABN, charges GST, receives no employee entitlements, and whose income from the putative employer comprises only approximately 15% of total business income is not, on those facts, a common law employee or deemed worker.
3An unsigned document proffered by the putative employer seeking to impose work attendance obligations does not establish a contract of employment where the parties never conducted their arrangements consistently with its terms.
