What is Independent contractor?
Payroll & people. A plain-English definition for Australian business owners.
An independent contractor is a person who runs their own business and is engaged to deliver a result, rather than employed to work in a role.
Whether a worker is genuinely a contractor or actually an employee is determined by the whole of the working relationship — control over how work is done, ability to delegate, who supplies the tools, who bears commercial risk — not by what the contract calls them. Misclassification (sham contracting) exposes a business to back-pay, superannuation and penalties, and contractors paid mainly for their labour may be owed super even when correctly classified. Check the current Fair Work and ATO tests when in doubt.
In a connected back office this sits with the People hub, where Valont runs award compliance, hr & ir advisory and employer advice line for Australian SMEs as one team. The full definition set is on the glossary.
Talk to an Advisor
General information, not advice. For how this applies to your business, talk it through with a Trusted Advisor or start with the Business Health Check.