The various Labor States are working hard, to make being in the labour hire business more difficult. And users of labour hire are in their sights as well. So far Queensland and South Australia have passed laws requiring labour hire services to be licensed.  

Both pieces of legislation contemplate heavy fines and/ or imprisonment for employers that use unlicensed providers, so it’s buyer beware. Both laws come into force in 2018, SA in March, with Queensland following in April. Victoria is busy getting its version up and running too. Others are likely to follow. 

And the reach of these laws is deep. The laws cover any circumstance where a provider supplies, to another person, a worker to do work.  A professional performing services (say a visiting radiologist working in a clinic placed by an external provider) would be covered.  

Internal labour hire (e.g. where a subsidiary company provides labour to an asset holding parent company) would be included too. 

This activity is part of the long term campaign by unions to go as close as possible to eradicate this form of employment. Labour hire has been an anathema to unions and these legislative moves are just the latest assault on it. If the past is any guide, even if there is a change of government in any of these jurisdictions, these laws won’t be repealed. There is a campaign to see these laws go national.   

It doesn’t matter if a user is incorporated in a state or territory that doesn’t have these laws in place – if the business operates in the jurisdiction and uses, or intend to use, labour hire, then the legislation applies. 

The providers of labour will be required to register, pay an annual registration fee and file reports regularly on their activities. Some of these costs will no doubt be passed on to users.  

And if a provider loses its licence, in some instances this would mean it could not regain it for at least two years. Where an application for a licence is refused, the applicant has to wait three months before re-applying.  

Labour hire users need to know their provider is conforming and reliable, so contracts need to be cognisant of that. Users need to be indemnified.  

Using an unlicensed labour hire provider attracts fines up to $400k, so it is vital users know the status of their provider’s compliance with these laws at all times.  

Labour Hire Licensing SA  
Labour Hire Licensing QLD

Back to Newsletter