He signed the forms without reading them - the court looked at what he actually did on the farm

Signing forms that labeled him a "director" didn't make him one - and Queensland's Court of Appeal dismissed the insurer's bid to deny his cover.

On July 3, 2026, Queensland's Court of Appeal confirmed that an injured cane worker was a genuine employee covered by workers' compensation, rejecting an insurer's attempt to reclassify him out of cover using a handful of signed forms.

It's worth a few minutes for anyone who owns classification, payroll or workers' compensation risk, because it turns on a simple rule: courts look at what people actually do, not at what a document calls them.

The worker was crushed on August 15, 2018 while repairing a cane harvesting tractor that slipped off a jack. The injury flowed from the negligence of his employer, CRG Harvesting - a point that was not in dispute on the appeal.

The contest was about coverage. Workcover Queensland refused to indemnify the company, arguing the man was not a "worker" under the Workers' Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003 (Qld). It ran two main arguments: that there was no genuine contract of employment, and that even if there was, he was shut out of cover as a company director.

On the first, the court agreed there was a contract of employment, even without anything in writing. It could be inferred from conduct - payroll records treated the man as a salaried employee with superannuation, and the company earned the...

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