Managing your labour contracting
It makes business sense to check that your contractors and any subcontractors in the supply chain comply with workplace laws.
On this page:
Where do I start?
When you are looking to contract out labour, it’s a good idea to make sure you understand the cost of employment. Your contractor/subcontractor will need to pay their employees correctly as well as cover employment costs (like superannuation, workers' compensation, payroll tax, insurance and licenses). If you understand these costs, it'll help you make sure the contracted price isn't too low.
Some states have laws requiring labour hire businesses to be licensed, and for users of labour hire to only use licensed labour hire providers. These laws are managed by the relevant states.
To find out about using labour hire or applying for a licence, contact:
- Australian Capital Territory – WorkSafe ACT
- Queensland – Labour Hire Licensing Queensland
- South Australia – Consumer and Business Services
- Victoria – Labour Hire Authority
Follow our 5 steps to effectively engage a new contractor
The steps are:
- Know the pay and conditions that apply.
- Ask potential contractors about their workplace practices.
- Check the contract price to make sure it's enough to cover wages.
- Set clear expectations.
- Make sure you know of subcontracting arrangements.
We've developed resources to help you do this:
- Guide to labour contracting – help on how to use our 5 steps to select a potential contractor and identify if they are complying with workplace laws
- Guide to contracting labour for small business – checks for small business owners who are considering contracting work, to minimise your risk of hiring a non-compliant contractor
Review your existing contracts
Things change over time. You can follow these 3 steps to check whether there are any issues in your contracting network:
- Map your existing contracts.
- Examine compliance with workplace laws.
- Act on any problems you find.
Read our Guide to monitoring your labour contracting for help on mapping existing contractors and subcontractors, checking compliance and addressing any problems.
Regular self-audits can help. You (and your contractors) can use our Guide to self-auditing your business to check you're complying with workplace laws.
What we do
We work with businesses, associations and government to help them get it right when it comes to contracting labour and supply chains.
We:
- are running a campaign to help local government with their security contractors and subcontractors (for example, how they engage contractors and subcontractors)
- are looking at how charities use labour to get donations
- have spoken about our work to help build a culture of compliance in Australia's labour supply chains
- have worked with large businesses to improve staff training and business practices in hotels.
