• Compliance & enforcement

Labour Hire Authority (LHA) compliance officers recently attended several farms in the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula, to investigate alleged unlicensed operations.

The inspections came after the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) referred intelligence to LHA indicating that workers were being supplied to multiple farms by unlicensed providers.

LHA officers interviewed key staff from host businesses and collected financial documents to enable thorough investigation of the information received from the FWO.

The LHA investigation also discovered potential alleged licence fraud, including an unlicensed provider passing off the valid labour hire licence of a different business as their own.

The inspections are the latest in ongoing collaboration between LHA and the FWO, following joint site visits to farms in Melbourne’s south-east earlier this year.

LHA is continuing its investigations into potential non-compliance uncovered during the visits and will continue to work alongside the FWO on the outcomes.

Joint activities with other regulators ensure non-compliance can be investigated and enforced across different workplace laws and obligations that fall under each regulator’s jurisdiction.

LHA works closely with a range of primary regulators like the FWO to detect, disrupt and deter non-compliance within the labour hire industry, including:

• by sharing data and intelligence
• when assessing licence applications
• during compliance investigations
• through joint field activities.

With some labour hire providers operating in multiple states and territories, LHA often works with other licensing authorities where licensing schemes are in place.

Ensure businesses supplying your workers have a valid labour hire licence

It is crucial that host businesses check to ensure the providers they’re engaging to supply workers are licensed to operate in Victoria.

Under the Act, penalties for using or providing unlicensed labour hire services can exceed:

• $630,000 for a corporation
• $150,000 for an individual.

Hosts should not rely on paper documentation to check the validity of a licence – it is relatively simple for an unscrupulous provider to ‘doctor’ paper certificates.

Always use the tools on the LHA website to ensure providers have a valid licence:

• Check a provider is licensed using LHA’s Labour Hire Licence Register.
• Stay up to date on any changes to a provider’s licence status using Follow my Providers.
• Report any suspected non-compliant or unlawful activity, such as if a provider’s bank details regularly change on invoices, using the Report a problem tool.

There are several steps hosts should consider before engaging providers:

• Make sure you have a written contract with your provider that properly identifies who they are and includes an obligation to let you know of any changes to who runs the business, their licence status or any problems they have with complying with the law.
• Check that the ABN they provide is valid by using ABN Lookup.
• Check the identification of the person you are dealing with – and then check the licence register to confirm they are listed as the nominated officer for the licence.

Another red flag to watch out for – non-compliant providers often change their name, ABN or bank details. If you are concerned, contact the LHA Enquiries team on 1300 545 200.

Compliance and enforcement in horticulture

The horticulture industry continues to be a focus of LHA compliance and enforcement, with recent significant activities including:

• the successful prosecution of A L Star Express Pty Ltd which was unlicensed when it provided workers to pick fruit and vegetables
• the successful prosecution of Honey Bunny Global Pty Ltd for engaging unlicensed providers to source workers for farms in the Cobram area
• a case filed in July 2023 for multiple alleged breaches of obligations around company directors by Monorom Labours Power Pty Ltd, which operated in the Yarra Valley and Koo Wee Rup
• the successful prosecution in December 2022 of Ung Services Pty Ltd, which supplied workers to the Yarra Valley, for failing to inform LHA about a new director with criminal convictions.

As well as these enforcement actions, LHA has recently undertaken a range of investigations of horticulture providers, resulting in refusals of licence applications and cancellations of licences.