Clause 29 of Queensland’s new Labour Hire Licensing Bill 2017, introduced into Parliament on 25 May 2017, will allow the Chief Executive to impose conditions on a licence for any reasons and in any circumstances that the Chief Executive considers appropriate.
Those conditions expressly include a condition that requires a licensee:
- to hold insurance of a stated kind and in a stated amount – that is to say a compulsory insurance requirement that is not necessarily limited to workers’ compensation insurance; but may extend to professional indemnity, public liability, and fidelity insurance
- to lodge with the Chief Executive a security that complies with stated requirements – that is to say, a “bond” or “guarantee”.
I suspect that many agencies will be wanting to know a lot more about the policy guidelines (if any) that will inform the Chief Executive’s decisions on those matters!
If the conditions are imposed at the time the licence is granted, the show cause safeguards provided by clause 30 will not apply. The usual recourse that a disappointed applicant will have in that situation will be to appeal to QCAT; and possibly run the gauntlet of having some “interested person” apply to intervene or cross apply for review of whatever conditions are imposed – possibly seeking more extensive insurance, or a larger bond.
Get ready for the appeals!
Recruiters' Casebook 