Labour hire induction and training

Background

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (OHS Act), labour hire hosts have the same health and safety duties to labour hire workers as they do to any other employee. The host employer is taken to be the employer of the person a labour hire provider or recruitment agency has supplied, recruited or placed with an employer to perform work.

Induction and training

Labour hire providers should provide an induction to their labour hire workers. The host employer should also provide a site-specific induction when an employee starts a new role.

The host employer must also provide training. This will vary with the type of job. The labour hire provider should assess the ability of the host employer to provide this training and verify with the labour hire worker that they have received it.

Sometimes there is a gap in knowledge or skills when placing a labour hire worker in a role. In these circumstances, it is the labour hire provider's responsibility to ensure the labour hire worker is capable of doing the job. This means that the labour hire provider either provides a competent worker or ensures that the host employer provides adequate information, instruction, training and supervision to resolve any skill gaps. The labour hire provider must verify that training is delivered.

Labour hire providers must ensure that those who they engage are adequately trained to perform the role of assessing the host site.

How to assess the host employer's induction processes

As a labour hire provider, the following may help you assess the host employer’s induction process:

• Does the induction address general occupational health and safety (OHS) risks of the site, hazard and incident reporting, supervision, OHS policies, safe operating procedures, first aid and other facilities, security, issue resolution and consultation?
• Have you made sure the induction program attendance is formally recorded and signed by the host employer’s representative and the labour hire worker to verify their attendance?
• Have you taken a copy of the induction program content and recorded the date of attendance?
• If there is no formal record of the induction program, have you asked for one?
• If the host has no induction program, have you recorded this, asked why not and determined whether and how to proceed? Have you documented the outcome?
• Has the host employer's area supervisor been made aware of the employment of your worker in their area? Have you confirmed this with the host employer?
• Have you recorded the supervisor's name?
• Is the labour hire worker aware of the reporting procedures for hazards and incidents?