Victorian Minister for Industrial Relations Tim Pallas has announced that Victoria’s Labour Hire Licensing Scheme will come into force on 29 April 2019. The scheme will be subject to a six-month transition period, meaning all labour hire providers who want to continue operating in Victoria will have until 29 October 2019 to apply for a license. From 29 October 2019, businesses that use labour hire will be required to use a licensed provider, or a provider with a licence application pending.

Labour hire hosts and providers both have legal obligations under the new labour hire licensing scheme which, if overlooked, can result in penalties exceeding $500,000 for a corporation, or $128,000 for an individual. More information on these obligations, including further detail on who is deemed a ‘labour hire provider’ for the purposes of the new requirements is available on the Labour Hire Authority website.

Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner Steve Dargavel has stated that the Labour Hire Authority will be conducting over 20 information sessions across Victoria for hosts and providers – and that the mission of the Labour Hire Authority is to “protect labour hire workers from exploitation and improve the integrity and transparency of the labour hire industry.”

Members may recall that the Victorian parliament passed the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 in Victoria in June 2018. This followed the Victorian Inquiry into Labour Hire and Insecure Work, which found evidence of labour hire worker exploitation in the horticulture, meat and cleaning industries.

Members seeking further information are encouraged to contact the IR Department on (03) 9411 4560.