New obligations for host employers

Host employers have a new obligation to cooperate with labour hire providers by taking all reasonable steps to support them to meet their rehabilitation obligations as an employer for an injured labour hire worker.

You must cooperate with the labour hire provider by taking all reasonable steps to support the provider to meet its rehabilitation obligations for an injured labour hire worker.

This could involve discussions and agreement between the parties on planning for return to work or stay at work and identification of available suitable duties.

Why this is important

In labour hire arrangements, the labour hire provider is the legal employer and has the obligation to support rehabilitation and return to work.

However, in practice, labour hire providers rely on host employers to provide suitable duties programs because, being suppliers of labour, limited suitable duties exist within their own workplace.

The new obligation on host employers to support the labour hire provider for rehabilitation and return to work for an injured labour hire worker does not make the host the employer of a labour hire worker. The purpose of the new obligation is to better support labour hire providers to meet their employer obligations for these workers to secure the worker’s timely rehabilitation and return to work.

Penalties exist for non-compliance by host employers.

What actions can I take now?

• Respond as soon as possible to the labour hire provider's request for assistance and provide a main point of contact at your workplace.
• Provide reasonable access to your workplace to the labour hire provider and other parties (like a rehabilitation provider) involved in the return to work process.
• Be available and part of discussions about providing duties, return to work planning and consultation.
• Keep relevant parties updated about the injured worker's return to work progress and their duties.
• Consider what options there are for suitable duties at your workplace and be flexible.
• Work with the labour hire provider to address any barrier that might prevent a safe return to work.
• Let the labour hire provider know if you cannot provide the injured worker with suitable duties due to legitimate safety reasons.

Your toolkit

• Intervene early and plan your worker’s return to work as soon as possible after they’ve been injured.
• Promote the benefits of early return to work in your workplace policies and with your supervisors and rehabilitation and return to work coordinators.
• Work in consultation with your labour hire workers to help make your business safer and healthier.
• Have suitable duties available and use job task analysis and return to work checklists to help identify opportunities to return to work safely.
• Offer supervisor support and training to build stronger teams (PDF, 0.09 MB) and generate a positive workplace culture.
• Review Host employers: Managing the safety of labour hire workers (PDF, 0.26 MB) for guidance on how to manage the work health and safety of labour hire workers.
• Build your capability and knowledge about rehabilitation and return to work by
  • subscribing to this e-bulletin
  • visiting the Return to Work Queensland Facebook page
  • sharing these resources with your colleagues.