Review of Labour Hire Licensing Scheme Fees Are there any other matters that should be considered during the interim financial review? 3, 12, 24, 33, 39 Suggestions made to consider the following matters: whether fees should be increased to make it more difficult for unlawful operators to establish exploitative businesses and to profit from these enterprises until they are shut down; to review information such as statistics on the number of licences that were rejected to monitor the impact that the scheme is having on the supply of labour requirements to the agriculture industry in Victoria; to review whether the costs of the Authority are proportionate to meeting the objectives of the Act; to consider grouping for the purpose of licence fee concessions; to consider the allocation of resources between the section 4 objects of the Act; the effectiveness of resource allocation amongst different regulators; resource allocation broken down by different types of non-compliance; to review the basis of calculating fees (to other considerations besides annual turnover); to consider the occurrence of infringements/penalties, where they are occurring and the level of these infringements/penalties; and to include stakeholder consultation in the review. Noted. Both Industrial Relations Victoria and the Authority will review and monitor these matters as appropriate.
Additional feedback Exemptions: workplace learning and vocational placements definitions 4, 5, 7, 18, 20, 21, 27, 28 Some submissions suggested modifications to the exemptions in relation to workplace learning and vocational placements, but it is not which elements of the exemptions should be modified. Remove the exemptions relating to workplace learning/educational placements to reduce the risk of exploitation. No change proposed. The Government does not intend to remove the exemptions for workplace learning/educational placements. The information provided to date indicates that the exemption has an important role to play in reducing regulatory burden for students and has been drafted to reduce the risk of exploitation.
Additional feedback Exemptions: remove clause 4(2) 32 Draft clause 4(1) sets out circumstances in which an individual is not a worker. Draft clause 4(2) states that subregulation (1) does not apply to a class of persons declared by the Minister by notice in writing to be a worker. Suggestion made that draft clause 4(2) should be removed so that the Minister does not have this power. No change proposed. clause 4(2) is necessary to provide flexibility in changing circumstances, to support the scheme in protecting workers from being exploited and in improving the transparency and integrity of the Victorian labour hire industry. Additional feedback Exemptions: insert additional or extended exemptions from the scheme 9, 11, 12, 17, 22, 24, 29, 31, 33, 38 Exempt high income earners whose annual wages exceed the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) high-income threshold. Exempt professional/trade services, genuine sub-contracting arrangements, genuine outsourcing and volunteers. Extend the one to two-person exemption to family businesses with less than 10 employees. Include additional examples of ‘secondees’. Exclude joint venture arrangements in all circumstances. Extend the exemption to include related bodies corporate under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). No change proposed. The Government does not consider there is merit in exempting high income earners from the scheme. This proposed exemption has not featured in discussions during the Inquiry, the passage of the Labour Hire Licensing Bill 2017 (Vic) through Parliament, previous consultation by the Department on the scope of the scheme or the Regulations. The provision of some services, genuine arrangements, genuine outsourcing and volunteers are already excluded from the scheme in the definition of ‘provides labour hire services’ in section 7 and section 9 of the Act. The Government does not propose to add additional examples of ‘secondee’ arrangements in the Labour Hire Licensing Regulations. However, it is expected that the Authority will develop guidance material to provide clarification in this area.
Additional feedback Centralised compliance reporting across jurisdictions 11 Allow automatic registration in other jurisdictions when a licence applicant pays a single fee in one jurisdiction and allow a single course of compliance reporting for labour hire providers operating in multiple licensed jurisdictions. No change proposed. The Victorian Government does not have the capacity to require other jurisdictions to automatically register a licence applicant once they are provided a licence by, or pay a fee to, the Authority. Likewise, the Victorian Government does not have the legal capacity to require other labour hire licensing jurisdictions to accept reporting provided under the Victorian scheme. Additional feedback Extension of Labour Hire Licensing Authority’s functions and powers 4, 5, 6, 14, 18, 21, 27, 28 The scope of the Authority should be extended to include emerging employment models. No change proposed. The scheme is necessarily based on existing employment and workplace frameworks. The planned reviews of the scheme can consider emerging models. Additional feedback Notice to comply 32 Require a notice to comply regulation 20 to set out the material facts upon which it is reasonably believed that provisions of the Act or the Regulations have been contravened and what material facts in relation to the relevant grounds for suspension or cancellation are reasonably believed to exist. Specify a minimum period of time to comply with a notice to comply. No changes proposed. Regulation 20(c) requires that a notice to comply must include the grounds for suspension or cancellation that are reasonably believed to which would cover the relevant material facts. It is not proposed to specify a minimum period of time to comply with a notice to comply. It is considered necessary to provide the Authority with the flexibility to set compliance periods relevant to the particular issues of each case.