Minister for Industrial Relations, Grace Grace has called for national action to protect workers being exploited by employers.
Marking the third anniversary of the State’s nation-leading labour hire licensing laws, Ms Grace said the evidence continued to underline the need for national action.
“In three years, compliance action has been taken against 650 labour hire providers in Queensland, ranging from cancelling licences to strict conditions on licences,” Ms Grace said.
“We acted three years ago on evidence that showed serious exploitation of workers and deplorable business practices by labour hire providers.”
She said Queensland’s scheme continued to protect workers by clamping down on rogue operators, as well as providing the State’s 3,350 legitimate operators the level playing field they sought.
“Additionally, the scheme has meant our inspectors can work with Agencies like the Australian Tax Office, Australian Border Force, the Fair Work Ombudsman and other Commonwealth, State and Local Government regulators, sharing intelligence and resources to tackle criminal activity and serious offences, such as wage theft and tax evasion,” Ms Grace said.
She said that since the scheme had been introduced, 255 licences had been suspended for non-compliance; 83 licences have been cancelled for non-compliance; 251 licence applications had been refused or withdrawn; and 61 licences had been granted with conditions.
“As well, 10 businesses and five company directors have been successfully prosecuted, with courts issuing a total of $820,000 in fines,” the Minister said.
“Legitimate businesses were sick and tired of being undercut by these dodgy operators and their unlawful practices — they wanted them stomped out, full stop.”
She said the only way to put an end to this kind of appalling exploitation was to introduce a proper labour hire regulation scheme.
“It’s time for national action to protect all Australian labour hire workers,” Ms Grace said.
