Cleaners in commercial premises

If you supply workers to work as a cleaner in a commercial premises you are likely providing labour hire services and will require a licence.

A commercial premises is a building or place at which an occupation, profession or trade is carried on for the provision of services directly to members of the public, or that is used as an office or retail premises. It includes shops, restaurants and schools. It does not include any part of a place that is used as a person’s place of residence.

Here are some scenarios in a cleaning setting.

Scenario 1

Building management for a large office building enters into a contract with Best Commercial Cleaners Pty Ltd (BCC) to supply management with cleaners to clean the office building.  The cleaners work on rotating shifts to clean the office building during set hours.  BCC is a labour hire provider because it is supplying the cleaners to clean commercial premises and requires a labour hire licence.

Scenario 2

A hotel complex needs additional cleaners to clean their hotel rooms.  They contact AAA Hotel Cleaning Pty Ltd (AAA) to provide extra cleaners for three weeks to cover the peak period.  AAA supplies two cleaners who work alongside the hotel’s employed cleaners.  AAA is a labour hire provider because it is supplying the two cleaners to clean commercial premises and requires a labour hire licence.

Scenario 3

Joe is a commercial cleaner and the sole director and operator of Cleanest Cleaner Pty Ltd (Cleanest Cleaner). He has several small commercial cleaning contracts with kindergartens and medical centres.  He cleans the kindergartens and medical centres by himself and does not hire any staff.  Cleanest Cleaner does not require a labour hire licence because it is a one director company, Joe is the director who participates in the management of the company but also provides himself to do the cleaning work.

Scenario 4

Specialist Cleaners Pty Ltd (Specialist Cleaners) provide specialist cleaning services on site to both domestic and commercial customers.  Specialist Cleaners require a labour hire licence because they provide workers to perform activities as a cleaner in a variety of commercial settings.  If Specialist Cleaners only provided a domestic cleaning service, they would not require a labour hire licence.