What a painter's back injury reveals about contractor classification risk

A painter, an ABN, and a back injury. A Victorian court examines what an employer owes a worker, regardless of how the engagement is documented.

The case of Nouroozi v Jaggers Corporation Pty Ltd, heard in the County Court of Victoria, involved Mohamad Nouroozi, a painter who worked for Jaggers Corporation Pty Ltd from December 2016 to March 2018. Jaggers required its painters to hold an Australian Business Number (ABN) and invoice for their work. On paper, they were contractors. In practice, the arrangement looked a lot like employment.

On 13 March 2018, Nouroozi was roller-painting a wall at a residential site in Tarneit when he bent over to reach the lower section and could not stand back up. He was taken by ambulance to Footscray Hospital, where he says he was diagnosed with a back spasm and discharged. His general practitioner later referred him for a CT scan, which on 26 March 2018 revealed a significantly large L4/5 disc protrusion causing considerable compression of the thecal sac. He also alleged that he suffered depression and anxiety as a consequence of his physical injury, though the court ultimately did not accept that his current psychiatric condition arose from the workplace injury, finding that his mental health deterioration was more closely linked to unrelated life stressors.

He sued Jaggers for negligence, arguing the company failed to provide a safe system of work, safe equipment,...

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