School hosts

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If your school pays a company to supply cleaners, security guards or temporary staff, you are likely considered a ‘labour hire host’ under Victorian law.

Under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (Vic), businesses that provide labour hire services must be licensed, and hosts must only use licensed providers.

Licensing helps to ensure labour hire businesses are run by fit and proper people and comply with their legal obligations – to protect workers and improve the integrity of the industry.

Any school found engaging an unlicensed labour hire provider can face penalties exceeding:

  • $650,000 for a corporation 
  • $160,000 for an individual 

While procurement practices vary across sectors and schools, it is important that all decision-makers and procurement staff – including principals, business managers, sector staff and school councils – are aware of, and comply with, their obligations.

School services commonly provided by companies requiring a labour hire licence include:

  • cleaners to clean classrooms and facilities
  • IT staff contracted to resolve computer issues
  • groundskeepers to maintain lawns, sporting fields and landscaping
  • security guards to patrol school premises
  • temporary teaching or administrative staff.

In addition to potential penalties, schools may face disruption if the Labour Hire Authority (LHA) finds an unlicensed provider has supplied workers to their premises.

As well as obligations under labour hire law, hosts can be liable for a provider’s contraventions under workplace and migration law, and they have a shared responsibility for workplace safety.

Always check the labour hire licence

Take two quick actions to protect your school and support a fairer industry: 

  1. Check the licence of any current providers on the Labour Hire Licence Register.

  2. Subscribe to be notified of any changes to a provider’s licence status using Follow My Providers.

More information on how to protect your school is available below – including about hosts’ obligations, Victoria’s labour hire law, and common issues in labour hire.

Checklist: Engaging a labour hire provider

Before engaging a new provider:

  • Check the provider is licensed using the Labour Hire Licence Register.
  • Do not rely on paper documentation – it could be fake or out of date.
  • Check the age of the provider’s company and their industry details.
  • Ask for evidence of provider’s company structure, hierarchy of control and contracting arrangements.
  • Confirm the business offering services is the same as the one on the Register:
    • Note who is named as running the business, including any nominated officers.
    • If the person approaching you is not one of those people, confirm their connection to the licensed provider and authority to act, and ask to see an identity document.
    • Contact the provider’s nominated officer using the details on the Register, to satisfy yourself that the person or business is the licensed provider.
  • Keep a record of these checks for reference. 

When engaging a new provider:

  • Sign a written contract that properly identifies who they are and ensures workers will be paid the correct wages and entitlements.
  • Include clear and specific expectations of the provider, including an obligation to advise of any subcontracting arrangements or changes to their business or licence status.
  • Set clear expectations that the provider must comply with all workplace laws 

For more information, please visit the Check a provider’s licence status page. 

Avoiding compliance risk

Licence fraud

Licence fraud involves persons mispresenting themselves as being a licensed provider.

It can expose hosts to the risk of involvement with criminal elements, and the risk of participating directly in unlawful conduct.

Licence fraud also impacts licensed providers – as potential targets of fraud, and due to unlawful competitive disadvantage – while also increasing the risk of harm to workers including loss of wages or entitlements.

Hosts should be aware of potential indicators of licence fraud, including:

  • paper documentation that cannot be verified – e.g. licences, bank statements, contact details
  • any provider information that does not match the Labour Hire Licence Register
  • bank account names which either do not match a licensed provider, or which frequently change.

Businesses can contribute to a level playing field for legitimate labour hire providers, protecting workers and improving the integrity of the labour hire industry by reporting issues such as attempted licence fraud to LHA using the Report a Problem tool.

Sub-contracted services

Sub-contracting can be legitimate in labour hire, but compliance risk increases as supply chains become more complex, due to factors including:

  • confusion regarding responsibilities between companies supplying workers and a host
  • reduced visibility of companies further down the supply chain and their compliance
  • the potential for unlicensed providers to be introduced into the supply chain.

Generally, every business that supplies labour hire workers to a host – whether directly or through intermediaries – must have a labour hire licence.

Schools can manage supply chain risk by including conditions in service agreements that stipulate:

  • the use of sub-contracted providers is prohibited or controlled by clear agreement
  • sub-contractors must meet legal obligations 
  • compliance auditing may be undertaken.

Site visits by LHA officers

LHA undertakes compliance activities such as site inspections to monitor and enforce compliance.

During a site visit, LHA compliance officers may ask questions or ask to see documents that demonstrate what a business is doing to meet their legal obligations.

This may include details of a provider’s labour hire licence, or information about the providers that a host is using.

It is important for hosts to have a firm understanding of who is working at their premises and under what conditions. Hosts can face significant penalties for non-compliance in their supply chain, as well as disruption to their business.

LHA action to address non-compliance can include issuing warning notices, cancelling or suspending licences, and prosecuting unlawful behaviour.

Resources for hosts and stakeholders

Schools or their stakeholders can use the following materials – you may wish to post materials in your offices, provide them within your school, or distribute them to your networks. 

Report a problem

The Labour Hire Authority works with other state and commonwealth agencies to protect the rights of labour hire workers in Victoria.

You can help protect labour hire workers by reporting concerns or information about:

  • mistreated labour hire workers
  • unlicensed labour hire providers
  • hosts engaging unlicensed labour hire providers
  • unlawful behaviour or misconduct by labour hire providers.

If you would like to report a problem to LHA, please visit the Report a problem page.

Further resources