A firm called it 'work experience' - the court called it employment
A small accounting firm's missing records left it unable to challenge a former worker's unpaid-hours claim - and made the owner personally liable alongside the company.
On July 13, 2026, the Industrial Court of New South Wales found that Jazaa Accountants Pty Ltd broke a series of Fair Work Act obligations - on minimum pay, hours, employee records, pay slips, annual leave and superannuation - during the employment of a former staff member. It also found the firm's owner and director personally involved in the same breaches.
The worker was a recent accounting graduate who had come to Australia on a graduate visa. Both sides agreed he was a paid employee from June 1, 2023 until he resigned on July 8, 2024. The real fight was over the months before that. The firm called it unpaid "work experience." The worker said he was doing the job.
The court sided with the worker on that point. It found he had done genuine, revenue-earning work from February 2023 - preparing tax and financial documents for clients - which made him an employee, not a volunteer. A "work experience" label, the court said, does not decide the matter when someone is actually doing the work.
For HR, the sharpest lesson is about records. Because the firm had not kept proper employee records and had not issued pay slips, a reverse onus applied under the Fair Work Act. The burden flipped: the worker did not have to prove his hours; the employer...
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