Triangular employment is a situation where an employee of an employer (such as a labour hire company) works for another employer (such as a manufacturing company). In many such situations, the employer controlling a person’s work is not that person’s employer. This causes some people to conclude there is a relationship between three parties; hence the “triangular” description.
The Employment Relations (Triangular Employment) Amendment Bill is before a Select Committee. Note that this is a private member’s Bill and not Labour policy. Its aim is to give those persons employed by one employer (the primary employer) but under the control of another employer (the secondary employer) greater employment rights. There are two stated purposes.
Secondary Employer
A secondary employer for the purposes of this amendment is one “that exercises, or is entitled to exercise control or direction over the worker equivalent or substantially equivalent to that which would normally be expected of an employer”.
If the employer contracting a person through a labour hire company exercises a high degree of control over that person, or is entitled to do so, it is likely they will be the secondary employer of that person.
On the other hand, if the person is simply engaged to complete certain tasks and is largely responsible for their own work (or is supervised by the labour hire company), then it is likely the employer contracting that person will not be a secondary employer.
What to do?