by The Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Act 2019 has been passed into legislation, making changes which may cause significant implications for the labour hire/temp industry as we know it.
From 27 June 2020, the new law will allow a labour hire worker (commonly referred to as a “temp”) to potentially add a host company to a personal grievance proceeding which the labour hire worker takes against their employer (the “labour hire agency” or “temp agency”). This is enabled by the newly introduced concept of a “controlling third party”, which has been defined in the Act as a person:
- who has a contract or other arrangement with an employer under which an employee of the employer performs work for the benefit of the person, and
- who exercises, or is entitled to exercise, control or direction over the employee that is similar or substantially similar to the control or direction that an employer exercises, or is entitled to exercise, in relation to the employee.
The greater the extent to which a host company exercises control over the labour hire worker in a way that an employer would, the greater the likelihood that host company would be deemed a “controlling third party”. This could then allow the worker to add the host company to personal grievance proceedings.
The amendment also allows for the employer (the employment agency) to add the host company to personal grievance proceedings taken against them – this may be done in an attempt to minimise their liability for personal grievance claims, however this has the potential to seriously damage business relationships between the agency and the host so may not occur much in practice.
To read the full Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Act 2019 click here. If you have any questions about how this Act may apply to you please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Please do not substitute this article for professional advice.