His complaint annoyed the boss - and that reaction turned the sacking into a Fair Work breach
For more than a decade, a funds management company treated one of its most senior people as a consultant. On June 26, 2026, the Federal Court looked past the label and called it employment.
In Vize v. Whistle Funds Management Company Pty Ltd, the court found that a worker engaged in 2012 through his own consultancy - with his own ABN, billing for "consultancy services" - had in fact been an employee of Whistle Funds Management Company since July 2017. The wording of the contract did not match the reality of the job.
The facts that decided it will look familiar to any HR team. From mid-2017, the worker drew a fixed salary paid monthly - $250,000, then $300,000, and $350,000 by October 2023 - whether or not he worked, took leave, or was off sick. He no longer had to invoice to be paid. He worked full time from the company's offices, used its resources, did work central to the business and had stopped taking outside clients. By April 2021 he was managing director. All of that, the court said, pointed to employment. Only the tax arrangements - he collected GST and paid his own income tax - pointed the other way, and they were not enough.
The ruling is one of the first clean tests of the new statutory definition of employee. Section 15AA of the Fair Work Act, introduced by the Closing Loopholes No. 2 reforms and in force from August 26, 2024, tells courts to weigh the real substance...
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