Who needs a labour hire licence

Labour hire providers must be licensed in all industries.

Labour hire licence required

You’ll need a licence if:

• your business provides workers directly to carry out work for someone else (the host) as part of the host's business or commercial undertaking. This is regardless of whether the workers provided are under the control of you or the host
• your business provides workers to a host indirectly through one or more agents or intermediaries to carry out work as part of the host's business or commercial undertaking
• you have an arrangement with your workers to supply them either directly or indirectly to another person (the host) to carry out work as part of the host's business or commercial undertaking
• the workers you provide to the other person (the host) are paid, whether in full or in part, by your business - for example even if payment is only for accommodation.

Examples of labour hire arrangements.

Labour hire licence not required

Your business doesn't need a licence if:

• your business arrangement falls outside the scope of labour hire arrangements. The Fair Work website explains the difference between labour hire arrangements and engaging contractors
• you operate as a sole trader and the only worker that is supplied is the sole trader
• you operate as a partnership with:
  • no more than 2 individuals and
  • the worker supplied is a partner
• you operate as a company (body corporate) with:
  • no more than two directors and
  • the worker supplied is a director of the company or a senior manager
• your business is part of a group of entities, that carry on business as a group, and you supply a person to work for another entity within that group
• the individual you supply is a public sector employee within the meaning of the Public Sector Act 2009 who is seconded or transferred to do work for another person or entity pursuant to an Act
• you are a registered group training organisation to the extent that your business supplies apprentices or trainees to do work for other persons
• you are acting as an intermediary or agent (this means you contract with a business to supply workers, but your business doesn’t ’t have workers so you source the workers from another separate business,- a labour hire provider, - who has the arrangement with the workers to supply them to other businesses and pay them directly).
  See intermediary examples.

Your business also doesn't need a licence when the workers you supply:

• are 'in-house' employees of your business, which means:
  • they are engaged as an employee on a regular basis
  • can reasonably expect their employment to continue
  • perform work primarily for one employer (other than as a worker supplied to a third person to do work for the third person)
• have an annual wage equal to or exceeding the high-income threshold under the Fair Work 2009 and the individual's employment is not covered by a modern award or enterprise agreement under that Act.

Check if a labour hire provider is licensed

Check if a labour hire provider is licensed on the CBS Public Register.

Related information

On this site

• I provide labour hire
• I use labour hire
• I am a worker
• Check if a labour hire provider is licensed
• Report a problem

Other websites

• Contracting labour and supply chains - Fair Work Ombudsman
• High income threshold amounts - Fair Work Ombudsman

Legislation

• Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017
• Labour Hire Licensing Regulations 2018