Reginald Sharma

Industry Consultant

WorkCover Queensland

Worker definition, wages declaration and cross border arrangements

Employers who engage ‘workers’ are required to insure and maintain a WorkCover accident insurance policy to cover for any work related injuries.

To assist you with your obligations, we have developed and published employer guides on our website under Forms and Resources / Guides and factsheets / Employers

Let’s go through the following guides together:

- Who is a worker employer guide. (new definition from 1 July 2013)- Declaration of wages employer guide

Employer obligations

Cross border / interstate arrangements

The State of connection for your worker is decided by a common test which applies around Australia. The purpose of this guideline is to outline the test to assist you to decide the State of connection for your worker.

To determine the state the worker is connected to, there are three tests to be applied in the order they appear. If the worker’s employment situation satisfies the first test then there is no need to proceed to the next test.

A worker’s employment is connected with the state in which: • Test (a) – the worker usually works in that employment; or• Test (b) – if test (a) is not clear, the state in which the worker is usually based

for the purposes of that employment; or • Test (c) – in cases where (a) or (b) is not clear, where the employer’s

principal place of business in Australia is located.

Cross border example

A Queensland based employer operates an interstate trucking business that transports good across Australia and has depots in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.

All of their workers are supplied with trucks which are garaged at the main depot in Queensland when they are not in use.

The workers routinely receive instructions from the depots they stop at across the three states, and also receive ad hoc instructions via radio while in transit.

As the workers cross borders frequently they cannot be linked to any one state (test a) or any one base (test b). Since this employer’s principal place of business is in Queensland, as per the cross border arrangements, their workers are connected to Queensland (test c) and all of their wages will need to be declared to WorkCover Queensland during premium renewal.

For more information please refer to cross border information on our website.