The two corners this side joins
A labour hire employer hires its employees, and it is the employer that is responsible for their pay and entitlements.
The worker does the work at the host business, but the pay comes from the labour hire employer.
The Fair Work Ombudsman’s guide for businesses using labour hire adds the detail: where the provider is the employer, it pays each worker directly for the work done at the host, and gives them a pay slip.
“Under the arrangement, the labour hire provider has the obligation to pay the workers for the work they do (though this can be an indirect obligation, in the case of on-supply of workers).”
Labour Hire Licensing Queensland, who needs a licence? Read 13 October 2026.
The pay, and where it is set
On the company’s side, the instrument can be its own award or enterprise agreement, and it can keep applying while the worker is at a host.
The host has its own instrument as well, and the two can be the same or different. The Commission’s term for the host’s one is the host employment instrument.
Where the two meet, an order can set the worker’s pay by the host’s instrument; that is the protected rate of pay, and the same job, same pay question takes it up.
The company’s instrument and the host’s, side by side
| Question | The company’s side | The host’s side |
|---|---|---|
| Which instrument can cover the worker | The labour hire employer’s own award or enterprise agreement, which can keep applying while the worker is at a host. | The host employment instrument: the host’s enterprise agreement or other instrument, in the Commission’s term. |
| What happens when the two differ | They can be the same instrument or different ones for the two businesses. | Where an order applies, the worker’s rate is the total the host’s instrument would give them; the employer checks both and pays the higher amount. |
| What the floor is | The minimum pay and entitlements in the worker’s own instrument, and the parties cannot agree to less. | For a casual worker, a casual rate where the host’s instrument includes one. |
What the host business still does
The host business is where the work happens, and it is the host’s instrument that a protected rate is measured against.
Where an order applies, the host must give the labour hire employer the information needed to work out that rate.
None of that moves the employment. In the Commission’s material, no contract ties the worker to the host firm, and an unfair dismissal claim cannot be made against the host.
Where the pay rules can bend
There is one bend in the employment: where the agency and the host are related entities, the host can be the employer in law even though the contract was with the agency.
The courts have also found that putting an agency between its clients and the workers does not of itself make the client the employer of those workers.
Around the pay itself, the Fair Work Information Statement, pay slips and the National Employment Standards travel with the employment; the standards cover leave, notice and the rules on casual conversion.
A pay slip carries the provider’s ABN, which the Ombudsman’s guide notes can help a worker see who is responsible for paying them.
When the employment ends, a different rate can apply to termination payments, under rules for how that rate is calculated.
What this side does not settle
This side leaves three questions to the others: whether the company needed a licence, what a host owes when a provider is unlicensed, and how a same pay order is made.
The fourth is safety: a duty both businesses hold.
Where the official words are
The pay side rests on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s labour hire pages, its protected pay rate page and its guide for businesses that use labour hire, and on the Fair Work Commission’s page for labour hire workers.
The protected rate’s wording is from Part 2-7A of the Fair Work Act, as compiled on the Federal Register of Legislation, and the direct-payment line is the Queensland regulator’s. All were read on 13 October 2026.