Company directors

If you are a proprietary limited company, your employees who receive salaries, wages, superannuation or other benefits are workers and are covered for ReturnToWorkSA insurance purposes in the event of an accepted claim.

Payments that are:

  1. made to a director of a company
  2. expensed as salaries, wages or superannuation; and
  3. made in exchange for work performed by the director under a contract of service between the director and the company,

are likely to be classified as remuneration even if there are no other employees of the company. Such directors are workers and are covered for ReturnToWorkSA insurance purposes in the event of an accepted claim.

Payments made to company directors in exchange for work performed in their capacity as director (for example, attending board meetings or providing adhoc consultancy advice) are likely to be characterised as director’s fees. Director’s fees are not classified as remuneration for the purposes of the Act and directors who receive only director’s fees are unlikely to be covered under the Act.

Any remuneration (e.g. salaries, wages, superannuation etc. but excluding director’s fees) paid to directors must be included for premium calculation purposes and should be declared in any employer remuneration return provided to ReturnToWorkSA.

See our remuneration guide (DOCX, 297 KB) or more information.