Welcome to the August 2024 edition of LHA News
1 August 2024
Welcome to the August 2024 edition of LHA News.
The Victorian labour hire industry encompasses thousands of businesses, across a range of industry areas – each with its own business structure, supply chains and commercial activities.
Whatever the differences between businesses, the obligations under Victoria’s labour hire law are the same – for the Labour Hire Authority, a key consideration is a business’s risk profile.
This risk profile, and the ability of a business to manage it, is assessed when a licence application is submitted and throughout the period that a provider is licensed.
A business’s risk profile can be informed by factors such as how it operates, how workers are contracted and engaged, and whether it is being run by ‘fit and proper’ persons. These factors can be found in businesses in any industry.
Industry profile is one such risk factor – worker exploitation can be more likely in industries with lower wages, more limited training, and higher proportions of migrant workers, along with other factors.
This can lead to increased LHA compliance and enforcement activities within industries such as horticulture, which has seen dozens of labour hire licence cancellations and several high-profile prosecutions over the past 12 months.
In this edition, we look at a recent activity in horticulture which saw LHA attending farms in the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula to investigate allegedly unlicensed labour hire – the latest step in an ongoing collaboration between LHA and the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO).
Elsewhere in this edition, we look at:
- the importance of accurately reporting your business turnover to LHA
- updated guidance for the security industry for the 2024-25 financial year
- the risk of worker exploitation in the aged care industry.
I hope you enjoy this edition.
Steve Dargavel
Labour Hire Licensing Commissioner
In this edition
- Allegedly unlicensed providers identified following LHA and FWO collaboration
- Avoid the risk of compliance action: Accurately declare business turnover to LHA each year
- LHA security industry guidance updated for the 2024-25 financial year
- Labour hire industry profile: Aged Care
- LHA at the Care Expo Melbourne – engagement in August
- Details of all providers subject to licensing action in June 2024
Licensing update
- 103 licence applications submitted
- 64 licence renewals granted
- 113 licences granted
- 72 licences refused or cancelled
Events
- The Australian Signals Directorate's Australian Cyber Security Centre has information on how you can protect your customers’ personal data and prevent data breaches on their website.