If your business is currently working with a Labour Hire Provider, have you checked if they’re actually licenced to provide labour-hire services?

Or whether they’re required as a large organisation to report annually under the Modern Slavery Act?

Quite possibly you may not have. Well even though you’re not the labour provider, you may still be liable under your State’s Labour Hire Licencing Laws.

That’s right. As the ‘host company’, you may have a legal responsibility to ensure any business you work with from a labour-hire environment, is fully licenced.

So for example, the cleaning and property maintenance business you engage, could in fact be unlicenced.

That puts you at the risk of facing fines of over $400,000.

So let’s look at how you can ensure your business is protected for the future by partnering with fully licenced companies such as ACS Property Services.

Why were Labour Hire Laws introduced?

In recent years, the Labour Hire industry has come under intense scrutiny for evidence of widespread wage theft, poor workplace health and safety, denial of workers’ rights and exploitation of vulnerable workers.

In 2019, in order to better protect workers along with promoting more responsible practices within the industry, Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Queensland introduced a new licensing scheme for Labour Hire Providers. A National Scheme will most likely be introduced by the Federal Government in the near future.

According to Victoria’s Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner, Steve Dargavel: “Labour hire licensing is about improving the transparency and integrity of the sector to protect workers from exploitation by Labour Hire Providers and their hosts.”

Defining Labour Hire Laws

Just in case you’re not quite clear about what is a Labour Hire Provider, here’s a simple definition.

The Labour Hire Authority in Victoria describes a Provider as a business which has an arrangement to supply individuals to perform work in a host business or undertaking, and is obliged to pay those individuals for that work.

So for example, if you hire ACS Property Services to clean and maintain your business environment, we provide you with the labour for the services required and you are the host.

The definition of a Labour Hire Worker is any individual employed and paid by a Labour Hire Provider and supplied to host businesses on a full-time, part-time or casual basis.

So who needs a Licence?

Currently, to operate legally in Victoria, South Australia, ACT and Queensland, all Labour Hire Providers must be licenced under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018.

Licences are granted to an organization after they have proven a past record of compliance with their legal obligations. These obligations include payment of correct wages and superannuation as well as providing a safe workplace environment.

Since the Licencing Laws have been introduced, it appears both hosts and providers have had a positive reaction. The hope is that licensing will level the playing field so that compliant companies are no longer competing with businesses seeking to profit from denying workers minimum pay rates and conditions.

Avoid any risk with ACS Property Services

When you partner with ACS Property Services and ACS Indigenous, you can rest assured we are a fully licenced provider of cleaning and property services staff.

As part of our ‘One Team, One Family’ approach, we highly value every staff member and so abide by each State’s Labour Licencing Laws and the Modern Slavery Laws.

In fact, as a proudly ethical employer, we have all the necessary licences and accreditations for our industry.

As our Managing Director Lewis Igini says: “We have introduced a number of policies and procedures to support our staff, along with ensuring our partners feel assured we tick all the boxes when it comes to being totally industry compliant.”