Premium guideline: Whether ministers of religion can be workers for compensation purposes

What it contains

A minister of religion is not automatically exempt from being classified as a 'worker', just because of the religious nature of their work. In deciding whether a minister counts as a worker, courts will look at whether there was an attempt to create a legal relationship between the minister and their religious organisation.

For example, the rector in this case was

• entitled to superannuation contributions
• given a formal letter detailing their stipend and allowances
• expected to obey the bishop, even though their day-to-day activities weren't closely monitored