Chicken coup for Queensland’s Labour Hire Licensing team as hefty fines get dished out

Another South-east Queensland company has been fined for providing labour hire without a licence.

Handed down at a hearing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court last week, the $60,000 fine for K.T.D. Poultry Pty Ltd takes the total fines for unlicensed labour hire offences at the B&E Poultry (Qld) Pty Ltd factory at Ormeau to $370,000.

Earlier at a hearing in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court, several unlicensed labour hire providers, and B&E Poultry, the poultry processor who engaged them to provide workers for its Ormeau operation when they did not have a labour hire licence, received fines totalling $260,000.

B&E Poultry was fined $100,000 and its director Xu Chun Dong $50,000 on four counts of engaging unlicensed labour hire providers to perform a range of roles in the factory, including as de-boners, packers and delivery drivers.

Labour contractors GY Services Pty Ltd and MK Sun Pty Ltd were both fined $40,000 and their respective directors $15,000 each for providing workers to B&E Poultry without a licence.

Late last year, Fancey Pty Ltd was convicted for unlicensed providing under section 10 of the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017.It received a$50,000 penalty.

This followed a joint compliance activity between Queensland's Labour Hire Licensing Compliance Unit and Workplace Health and Safety Queensland two years ago which discovered the offences.

Queensland's pioneering labour hire licensing scheme protects vulnerable workers and raises the standards in the industry.

Further information

For more information on Queensland’s Labour Hire Licensing Scheme go to www.labourhire.qld.gov.au