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The Authority thanks everyone who applied for a labour hire licence by the end of the six-month transition period. The Authority will prioritise the assessment of these 3841 applications.

The Authority is aware there are existing providers who fully intend to comply with the Act and wish to obtain a licence but were not able to apply by the end of the transition period. It is vital to the success of the licensing scheme that all providers who are compliant with their legal obligations and who express an intention to continue to provide labour hire services in Victoria in accordance with labour hire laws are licensed.

It is for this reason the Authority has decided that, where a complete application is submitted to the Authority before midnight on 31 December 2019, and there is no evidence of non-compliance, it will not take enforcement action against a provider for providing services without a licence, or a host who enters into an arrangement with that provider.

This approach is in accordance with the guiding principles set out in the Authority’s Compliance and Enforcement Policy which is available on the Authority’s website and our key objective of protecting workers from exploitation, while operating in a fair and proportionate manner.

The end of the transition period was commemorated by Minister for Industrial Relations, Tim Pallas and Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner, Steve Dargavel. You can find the Victorian Government media release here.

The Labour Hire Authority received 3841 licence applications during the six-month transition period - 37 percent of applications were submitted in the last 48 hours.

During the transition period the Authority spoke with thousands of providers and hosts across Victoria through over 120 forums and stakeholder engagement sessions, conducted two advertising campaigns and attended to over 7,000 phone calls assisting businesses with their applications.

The Authority is pleased to advise that we are continuing to implement a range of improvements to our website.

The Authority has received a large number of applications. We are continuing to carefully assess applications to improve integrity in the labour hire sector.

We unable to provide a time frame to assess an application because each application varies.

Application assessment speed has been impacted significantly because many applicants have not provided the required information.

Applications lodged before 30 October 2019 will be prioritised and applicants can continue to trade as labour hire providers until their application has been assessed.

The labour hire licensing scheme was established in response to the independent Victorian Inquiry into the Labour Hire Industry and Insecure Work, which found significant evidence of exploitation of workers in the labour hire sector.

Labour hire licensing was introduced with the objectives of protecting workers from exploitation and improving the transparency and integrity of the labour hire industry.

The scheme seeks to achieve a level playing field, so that labour providers do not face unfair competition from unscrupulous operators, and workers are not subject to exploitation.