The Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 previously required all labour hire providers to have a licence. However, under the new provisions entered into force in July 2020, “the scope of the licensing scheme has been narrowed to apply to labour hire providers operating within industries where workers are at a greater risk of exploitation due to the low-skilled, labour-intensive nature of the work that they are engaged to undertake”. The sectors include horticulture processing, meat processing, seafood processing, cleaning and trolley collection.

Labour hire providers must inform the workers as well as their clients of the details of their licence.

As indicated in the South Australian Labour Hire Licence webpage, the penalties for not respecting the new rules are quite significant.

Labour hire providers that no longer need a licence are currently being contacted by the authorities and receive some refunding for their licence.

The changes have been favourably welcomed by the sector in South Australia.

The CEO of Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association of Australia & New Zealand (RCSA), Charles Cameron, said that “the move to target the licensing scheme would improve its ability to address isolated exploitation issues, while allowing agencies who service industries where there is no evidence of exploitation to get on with the job of placing South Australians in work and supporting local business growth”.

He continued saying, “we agree with the South Australian Government that targeting resources at enforcement and regulation in those sectors will have the greatest impact on exploitation. We need to ensure the labour market has the adaptability and flexibility to meet the demands of South Australian business in a competitive economy, while working to ensure that doesn’t come at the expense of our most vulnerable workers”.