Substance not name determines work status

Although the description or classification conferred upon an employee by the employer is one factor in determining that classification under the Fair Work Act, an enterprise agreement or a modern award, it is just one of a number of tests which are used to conclude the issue when there is a dispute about it. As Commissioner Roe said in Ponce v DJT Staff Management Services Pty Ltd , (2010) FWA 2078 (a case about whether an employee qualified for protection from unfair dismissal) “number of cases established that just because a worker was engaged as a casual and was a casual employee for the purposes of an award did not mean that the worker was a casual for the purposes of the unfair dismissal jurisdiction”.