An Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABBC) audit of 63 labour hire construction employers in Australia found that 79% didn’t meet all their obligations under Australia’s workplace laws. This included not paying their workers correctly, not keeping proper records and not giving their workers pay slips.

The report also showed that 48% of non-compliant employers contravened the record keeping and/or pay slip provisions of the Fair Work Act. The Commission identified non-compliance issues including: failure to keep a record of overtime hours worked by an employee, incorrect ABN/employer (Australian business number) name on the pay slip, pay slip not recording the pay period for which the payment related, and pay slip not recording the date the payment was made.

Meanwhile, 64% of non-compliant employers had failed to pay the correct base rate for ordinary hours, allowances, overtime or penalties.

ABCC Commissioner Stephen McBurney said the agency’s Wages Group recovered AUD 563,860 (USD 386,103) for 1,337 employees during the audit which was finalised in the 2019/20 financial year.

The ABCC has recovered more than AUD 2.1 million (USD 1.4 million) in wages and entitlements for 3,174 construction workers since it assumed this function on 2 December 2016,” McBurney said. “Our proactive audits have accounted for 80% of the wages and entitlements we have recovered for employees in the Australian construction industry.”

The report noted labour hire arrangements involve a triangular relationship in which a labour hire business supplies a worker to a host employer for an agreed fee.

“The precarious nature of labour hire employment means workers are less likely to speak up about their working conditions,” McBurney added.

Dave Noonan, the union's national construction secretary, told The Age, that the ABCC's decision not to pursue fines or name wrongdoers showed it was not enforcing the law properly against employers.

Charles Cameron, the Chief Executive of industry body Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association of Australia & NZ, said it was concerned by the findings and agreed labour hire firms should be beyond reproach when it came to simple award compliance.