ACTU backs tougher regulation of labour hire firms

Unions want tough regulation of labour hire businesses including rigorous licensing and banning rogue operators.

ACTU boss Ged Kearney wants unscrupulous labour hire operators banned.

Unions have called for stronger regulation of labour hire businesses ahead of the senate inquiry into temporary visas this week “to protect hundreds of thousands of workers”, including a public registry of labour hire firms, “rigorous” licensing and banning rogue operators.

Unscrupulous labour hire operators must be stopped, the Australian Council of Trade Unions said yesterday, adding that “unions want laws around labour hire that bring Australia in line with the rest of the OECD.”

The ACTU has estimated the labour hire market oversees up to 4 four per cent of the workforce, comprised of between 2000 and 3500 agencies and covering over 350,000 workers in industries including meat processing, warehousing, agriculture and horticulture.

It is concerned that labour hire businesses are acting as “middle men” and contributing to the exploitation of migrants working under temporary visas.

Last week, the royal commission into trade union heard reports of close dealings between the Australian Workers Union and labour hire companies, including labour hire firm Unibilt paying for Bill Shorten’s campaign director in 2007.

The AWU also brokered a deal with Chiquita Mushrooms in 2004, to install 300 workers employed by labour hire firm Oneforce onto sites in Victoria, in some cases replacing permanent employees.

Oneforce subsequently went into liquidation, leaving an outstanding debt for superannuation owed to its casual workforce of $560,000.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said: “The curtain needs to be pulled back on an industry which is currently expanding, operates without adequate checks and balances and stands accused of exploitation and abuse.”

“The Fair Work Act must be amended to recognise that both labour hire operator and host employer have a role in observing workers’ rights and entitlements.”

Ms Kearney said: “We have a situation at present where rogue operators can set up shop and then when things go wrong they simply change their name and their phone number and start again.”

“This is not how most businesses in Australia operate.”

Pop-up labour hire operators with nothing more than a van and a phone can disappear when things go wrong and reappear under a new name a week later, getting away with misconduct and a skirting of responsibilities, the ACTU said.

It said labour hire workers have told of feeling “unable to report abuse, exploitation, safety issues or injuries suffered for fear that exercising that right would lead to censure, the loss of shifts or the loss of a job altogether.”

“As middlemen, unscrupulous labour hire contractors are able to take a significant cut from employee wages; in one reported case passing on just one fifth of the money paid to them from an employer to workers with hundreds of thousands of dollars remaining unaccounted for.”

Canada, Korea, Japan and the UK operate licensing systems or codes of conduct that protect the rights and entitlements of labour hire employees.

“It’s time Australia acted to close loopholes that allow renegade operators to profit from unacceptable practices without consequences,” the ACTU said.

The Senate Inquiry into the temporary visa system will be heard in Adelaide today and will conclude in Canberra on Friday.