The South Australia government has announced its intention to amend the state’s labour hire laws to narrow the scope of the existing scheme.

The Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 requires labour hire providers in South Australia to be licensed. From 1 November 2019, if a firm provides labour hire services without being licensed, or engage an unlicensed labour hire provider, penalties may apply.

The government is seeking to narrow the scope of the scheme to apply to labour hire providers operating within industries where workers are at a greater risk of exploitation due to the low-skilled, labour-intensive nature of the work that they are engaged to undertake.

It is proposed that the scope of the licensing scheme be narrowed to labour hire providers who provide workers to undertake the following types of work: Horticulture processing, meat processing, seafood processing, cleaning, and trolley collection.

The government stated that the proposed amendments are still subject to the parliamentary process and “anyone currently captured under the existing scheme must ensure that they are licensed by 1 November 2019.”

CEO of Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association of Australia & New Zealand Charles Cameron said the move to target the licensing scheme would improve its ability to address isolated exploitation issues, while allowing agencies who service industries where there is no evidence of exploitation to get on with the job of placing South Australians in work and supporting local business growth.

“We have said from the very beginning that the original South Australian legislation failed to address any of our concerns around rogue operators in the sectors known to exploit workers,” Cameron said. “All the Act achieved was to put a handicap on legitimate and reputable businesses whose only crime was helping South Australians find good, quality work.”

“A broad approach to regulation spreads resources and focus wide and thin, essentially creating a box ticking exercise for organisations already doing the right thing and doing very little to genuinely address exploitation,” Cameron said.

“Independent reviews have clearly identified industries where worker exploitation exists,” Cameron said. “We agree with the South Australian Government that targeting resources at enforcement and regulation in those sectors will have the greatest impact on exploitation. We need to ensure the labour market has the adaptability and flexibility to meet the demands of South Australian business in a competitive economy, while working to ensure that doesn’t come at the expense of our most vulnerable workers.”

For more information on legal developments affecting Australia and Asia Pacific, refer to Staffing Industry Analysts’ Asia Pacific Legal Update Q2 2019.