Australian Labour Hire In The Spotlight

For many years the labour hire industry has been in the cross-hairs of the labour movement.

There is, without doubt, no shortage of cases where labour hire workers have been subjected to exploitation, either by their employers directly or by the ultimate 'host' (the recipient of their labour). But union concerns extend beyond merely addressing these instances of mistreatment. There is a deep seated objection to the industry at a philosophical level. By limiting an organisation's access to external labour, the bargaining power and perceived job security of the directly employed workforce is maximised.

For decades, unions have aggressively fought for substantial restrictions on the use of external labour in enterprise agreements to the fullest extent that is permitted by law. This has not been enough to curtail the use of labour hire. Whilst ABS data suggests that the prevalence of labour hire is limited (less than 1% of the total Australian workforce) and