• Reminders

The new financial year is an opportunity for labour hire providers to check their business remains compliant with legal obligations or risk licence cancellation. 

You should check licence details are up to date or risk licensing action, including cancellation of your licence for non-compliance, if you miss crucial notifications from the Labour Hire Authority (LHA) in the Labour Hire Licensing Online (LHLO) portal that require a timely response.

LHA has taken action against providers, such as refusing or cancelling licences, for having out-of-date contact or relevant person details, as required by the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (Vic).

The start of the 2025-26 financial year also brings changes to tax, superannuation, minimum and award wages, and workplace legislation – you should understand the changes and be compliant with the laws.

Check and update licence details

By keeping licence details up to date, you lower the risk of missing critical LHA notices. It is also a requirement under the Act to notify LHA of certain changes – significant penalties can apply for non-compliance.

Check your business and contact details on the LHLO portal and ensure the name and contact details for your nominated officer are correct. There is guidance available to help you update your nominated officer.

Responding to requests for information

LHA issues a range of critical requests and notices to licence holders and applicants via the LHLO portal, including: 

• requests for information, to clarify aspects of an application or a business’ relevant persons
• reminders such as upcoming licence renewals, fee payments and annual reports
• compliance and enforcement notices. 

It is crucial that nominated officers respond to any notices in a timely manner, to avoid delays and risks of non-compliance.

Failure to respond or provide a satisfactory response may provide grounds to refuse an application or cancel a licence.

National Minimum Wage and award minimum wage increases

From 1 July 2025, the National Minimum Wage has increased by 3.5 per cent and is now $948 per week or $24.95 per hour. Minimum award wages have also increased by 3.5 per cent.

The increase applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2025. This means if a weekly pay period starts on Wednesday, the new rates will apply from Wednesday 2 July 2025.

Providers should ensure they understand and implement these changes as required to remain compliant with their obligations under the Act.

Most employees are covered by an award. The National Minimum Wage applies to employees who aren’t covered by an award or registered agreement.

According to the Fair Work Commission in its Annual Wage Review, almost 80 per cent of workers in Australia are paid above their award; less than one per cent receive only the national minimum wage.

Superannuation

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has highlighted key dates in July to be aware of:

• From 1 July, the superannuation guarantee rate has increased to 12 per cent.
• By 14 July, STP finalisation declarations are due.
• By 28 July, super guarantee contributions are due to your eligible workers’ super funds.

The ATO has information available to help you understand your obligations when engaging a worker.

Right to disconnect laws for small businesses

Eligible employees at small businesses (fewer than 15 employees) will have a new ‘right to disconnect’ outside of work hours from 26 August 2025.

Employees will have the right to refuse contact outside their working hours unless that refusal is unreasonable. This means an employee can refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from an employer or a third party.

The changes came into effect for non-small business employers on 26 August 2024.

For more information, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Reminders for nominated officers

It is important that nominated officers fulfil their obligations, including to:

• notify LHA of any changes to contact information, such as the address of your registered office
• notify LHA within 30 days if any relevant person (such as a director or senior manager) is no longer a fit and proper person under section 22 of the Act
• notify LHA within 30 days if any relevant person is no longer compliant with legal obligations as required by section 23 of the Act
• add or remove a relevant person via the LHLO portal, particularly if this arises from changes to officeholders of a corporate entity
• submit annual reporting as required by section 34 of the Act
• pay the annual licence fee as required by section 35 of the Act.

Failure to fulfil these obligations may result in LHA compliance or enforcement action, including licence cancellation and prosecution.

Nominated officers should regularly check their LHLO portal account for notices from LHA and respond within any specified timeframes.

If you need assistance making updates to your business details, contact the LHA Enquiries team on 1300 545 200 or at enquiries@labourhireauthority.vic.gov.au

Common application issues

The role of accountants

Nominated officers must be employed by the business, involved in daily operations and have direct authority within the company.

LHA has refused applications from businesses where accountants have:

• completed the declarations and consents in the application form 
• authored a compliance plan and the nominated officer or relevant person cannot recall or understand the plan
• provided their contact details (phone number and email address) instead of the nominated officer’s contact details.

While it is appropriate for businesses to seek advice from accountants, nominated officers must complete the application and understand the declaration and consents before signing.

If an application does not contain declarations genuinely made by the applicant and all relevant persons, the application may be refused. LHA may cancel a licence if it later becomes aware that the holder of the licence gave materially incorrect or misleading information in an application.

Misclassification of workers

LHA pays close attention to businesses who intend to supply workers as independent contractors.

Some businesses are motivated to incorrectly engage workers as independent contractors because they believe it will lower costs. This risk increases in industries with high labour input, low wages and limited training, such as, commercial cleaning, horticulture, meat manufacturing/processing and security.

A business’s legal obligations to workers are often similar or identical, regardless of whether they are engaged as employees or as independent contractors.

Labour hire workers may be misclassified if they are:

• engaged under an Australian Business Number (ABN)
• working as part of the labour hire provider or host’s business, rather than genuinely conducting their own business
• subject to control about how their work is performed, as an employee would be.

If workers have been misclassified, LHA can take a variety of actions, including imposing conditions or refusing to grant or cancelling a labour hire licence.

For more information, visit Employee or independent contractor? Know the rules and classify workers correctly.

Failing to respond to requests for more information

Sometimes, Licensing Officers require additional information from applicants to decide whether to grant a licence. We may call you or send you a request for additional information by the LHLO portal.

You must respond to this request. If you do not respond or don’t respond satisfactorily, your licence may be refused by LHA.