Hiring office cleaners in Victoria: the labour hire licence
In Victoria, a business that supplies workers to clean a commercial premises is likely to be providing labour hire services and needs a licence, the Labour Hire Authority says.
The Authority states its general position this way: where a business provides staff to work as a cleaner in a commercial premise, it is likely to be providing labour hire services, and a licence then follows. The exceptions it names are narrow: a sole trader, and a company with at most two directors where those directors do the cleaning themselves and nobody else helps.
At an office or shop, supplied cleaners: the labour hire licence. At a home: none.
Filled: a labour hire licence. A business that supplies workers to clean a commercial premises needs a labour hire licence, the Labour Hire Authority says.
Outlined: no licence. A cleaning business needs no labour hire licence for a home, the Authority says, and a place used as someone’s residence is not part of a commercial premises.
The fine diagonal: long service. For a covered worker in contract cleaning, the portable scheme counts the industry’s years, not the employer’s.
The tally: when a home pays its cleaner directly. The ATO rule for a domestic or private worker: eligible for super guarantee if they work for you more than 30 hours in a week, regardless of pay.
What counts as a commercial premises
The licence turns on where the work is. In the Authority’s words, a commercial premises is a building or place where a trade, occupation or profession is carried on to provide services to the public, or a place used as an office or retail premises; its examples include shops, restaurants, factories, offices, schools and construction sites.
A place used as a person’s residence is not part of a commercial premises, the Authority says. That distinction is the whole of the domestic position, and the second guide sets it out.
Two scope points from the Authority’s pages are easy to miss. Cleaning at a commercial premises includes cleaning the building’s windows: the Authority’s own example of a high-rise window cleaning business is taken to provide labour hire services, because the business provides workers who perform cleaning activities at commercial premises. And the Act sets out no definition of its own for a cleaner at a commercial premise; the Authority reads the phrase as a person who cleans in a commercial space.
The definition of providing labour hire services was amended from 1 October 2026, and the Authority says the changes should be reviewed to work out whether a business, or the entities it sources labour from, now needs a licence.
The exceptions the Authority names
The licensing test is about supply: a provider that sends its workers to someone else’s premises is on one side of the line, and a small provider cleaning by itself is on the other.
- The Authority’s exception for a company: where the company supplies one of its own directors as the worker, no licence is needed if that director helps run the company or takes a share of its profits, and the company keeps at most two directors. A licence is needed once a third director joins, or once a worker who is not a director is supplied.
- The same exception covers a sole trader or a partnership providing themselves as the worker: no licence, because the Act’s definition of providing a labour hire service turns on supplying a worker to a host, and a person providing themselves is not that.
- A sole trader who supplies another worker, for example while they are on leave, is providing labour hire, and a licence is required.
- Where a business cleans homes for the people living in them, the Authority says, that arrangement is not the supply of workers to another person, and no licence applies.
- The Authority’s laundry example is not labour hire, and its facts are what make it so: a laundry business collects soiled uniforms and returns them cleaned, and all the laundering is done at its own industrial premises, with its own management directing and controlling the work. On those facts it is providing a specialised laundry service with its own workers, equipment and expertise, rather than supplying labour. Supplying workers to clean at a commercial premises is the other case: a company that does that is a labour hire provider.
Where a business is still unsure whether it meets the definition, the Authority’s guidance is that independent legal advice should be sought.
The Authority’s own worked examples
The Authority’s pages carry worked examples for the cleaning trade. These are the regulator’s own example businesses, not real firms.
| Arrangement | What the Authority says |
|---|---|
| Best Commercial Cleaners takes a contract with the management of a large office building to supply cleaners, working rotating shifts at set hours | The example company is a labour hire provider, because it supplies cleaners to clean commercial premises, and it requires a labour hire licence. |
| AAA Hotel Cleaning supplies two cleaners to a hotel for three weeks to cover a peak, working alongside the hotel’s own employed cleaners | Supplying the two cleaners to clean commercial premises makes the example company a labour hire provider, and it requires a licence. |
| A one-director company, with Joe as the director, cleans kindergartens and medical centres by himself and hires no staff | No licence, because the company is a one-director company, the director shares in its management, and no workers are supplied: he does the cleaning himself. |
| Specialist Cleaners supplies cleaners across a variety of commercial settings | A licence is required, because the company provides workers who clean across those settings. Had it only provided a domestic cleaning service, it would not need one. |
| High Flying Window Cleaners sends its workers to clean a high-rise’s windows for the building manager | Taken to provide labour hire services, and required to hold a licence, because it provides workers to clean at a commercial premises, windows included. |
The same office, cleaned two ways
Take one office, cleaned on the same three mornings, and set the two arrangements side by side. First, a cleaning company takes the contract and sends its two cleaners each week: the Authority’s example explains why that company counts as a labour hire provider, since it supplies cleaners to clean commercial premises, and a licence follows.
Second, the office engages a sole trader who cleans the premises alone, with no other workers: the Authority’s own exception applies, and no licence is required, because the sole trader is providing themselves as the worker rather than supplying a worker to a host. The difference is not the office, and not the cleaning: it is whether anyone is being supplied.
What a licence carries, and what unlicensed trading carries
A licensed provider takes on obligations that reach past the premises: the Authority says licence holders must comply with legal obligations including worker pay and conditions, superannuation and taxation. The people who run the business, or influence or control it, must also be fit and proper, and the Authority measures that on legal and compliance history as well as honesty, integrity and professionalism.
In industries with higher risks, the Authority applies standard conditions to all new licences, and progressively to existing ones. Fees are part of it: a licence application fee is paid at application and at renewal, and licence fees are payable annually.
Without a licence, the Authority states that substantial penalties may apply to providing labour hire services or engaging an unlicensed provider. The figures it publishes are more than $590,000 for a business and more than $145,000 for an individual, and they can apply to supplying labour hire services without a licence, to advertising them without one, or to a host business that engages an unlicensed provider. Advertising before an application is approved is its own exposure, and a labour hire provider’s subcontractors have to hold a licence as well.
The scheme itself is administered in Victoria by the Labour Hire Authority, which oversees monitoring, compliance and enforcement. The Authority’s current compliance focus is on cleaning, and it targets the harms common in labour hire when it assesses applications and through compliance work on licence holders.
What a host business checks
The duty on the other side of the contract is in the Authority’s own words: where commercial cleaning is involved, a host business should engage only licensed providers. Under Victorian law, providers must hold a licence and businesses must engage only licensed providers to supply workers.
The check is a lookup. The register is the Authority’s list of licensed providers, and both hosts and providers that subcontract cleaning work to other businesses should use it to confirm the businesses they use are licensed. Licence status can then be watched: the Follow my providers tool can notify a subscriber if a provider’s licence is cancelled or suspended.
For a large business the check is not only its own cleaner. Heads of supply chains are encouraged to review their arrangements and satisfy themselves that all businesses providing cleaning services for its commercial premises hold a licence. The Authority gathers data and intelligence on cleaning businesses that may need a licence, and reports of suspected unlicensed operation are invited.