Labour Hire for Call Centres & Customer Service in Australia
Labour hire gives contact centres and customer service operations access to a flexible, agency-managed workforce — without taking on the employment obligations, compliance burden, or administrative overhead of direct employment. The agency employs the workers; you direct their day-to-day activities.
This page lists Australian labour hire providers with experience supplying contact centre and customer service workers — from frontline agents through to team leaders and specialist positions — on an ongoing or project basis.
What is Labour Hire?
Labour hire is a workforce arrangement where a labour hire agency employs workers and supplies them to a host business (your organisation) to perform work under your direction. Unlike temporary staffing — which typically covers defined short-term periods — labour hire can be an ongoing arrangement, with the agency managing all employment obligations for the duration.
In practical terms: you tell the workers what to do and how to do it; the agency pays them, manages their entitlements, handles compliance, and takes on the employer responsibilities. For contact centres managing fluctuating headcount needs or wanting to maintain workforce flexibility without expanding permanent headcount, labour hire is a structurally different option to both permanent employment and standard temp recruitment.
Both involve agency-supplied workers, but labour hire typically covers ongoing or open-ended arrangements where the agency remains the employer long-term. Temporary staffing is usually for a defined period with a clear end date. If your need is genuinely short-term and time-bound, see the Temporary Staffing filter instead.
Benefits of Labour Hire for Contact Centres
- Workforce flexibility Scale your contact centre workforce up or down based on actual demand — without the fixed cost structure or HR complexity of adjusting permanent headcount each time your requirements change.
- Reduced employment risk The labour hire agency is the legal employer — managing payroll, superannuation, leave entitlements, workers compensation, and employment compliance on your behalf, significantly reducing your exposure.
- Lower administrative burden Payroll processing, award interpretation, Fair Work compliance, and employment record-keeping are all handled by the agency — freeing your HR and operations team to focus on performance rather than administration.
- Speed of access Labour hire agencies maintain active candidate pools — meaning new workers can typically be placed faster than equivalent permanent recruitment timelines, supporting rapid scaling when demand increases.
- Cost visibility Labour hire is typically billed as an all-inclusive rate covering wages, on-costs, and agency margin — giving you a single, predictable cost per worker rather than managing multiple employment cost components directly.
- Trial-to-permanent pathway Labour hire arrangements can serve as an extended evaluation period — workers who perform well can be converted to permanent employment, with the labour hire period effectively replacing a probationary recruitment process. Note: agencies typically charge a conversion fee.
Labour Hire Licensing in Australia
Labour hire in Australia is regulated, with licensing requirements in place in several states. Contact centres engaging labour hire providers should ensure their provider holds the appropriate licence for the state in which work is being performed:
- Queensland: Labour hire providers must hold a Queensland Labour Hire Licence under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017.
- Victoria: Labour hire providers must be registered under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (Vic).
- South Australia: Labour hire providers must hold a licence under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017 (SA).
- ACT: Labour hire providers must hold a licence under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2020 (ACT).
- Other states: NSW, WA, NT and Tasmania do not currently have state-level labour hire licensing, though Federal employment law applies in all jurisdictions.
As a host employer, you have obligations under workplace health and safety legislation regardless of who employs the workers. Ensure your provider can demonstrate compliance, and confirm your own WHS responsibilities with your legal or HR advisers before engaging a labour hire arrangement.
Resources for Contact Centre Workforce Planning
Relevant ACXPA resources to support contact centre staffing and workforce decisions:
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Salaries
Australian Contact Centre Salaries — current pay rate benchmarks for contact centre roles across Australia, useful for evaluating labour hire bill rates against direct employment costs.
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Calculators
ACXPA Management Calculators — free tools including an Employee Cost Replacement calculator, Turnover calculator, and Shrinkage calculator to support workforce planning and cost modelling.
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CC Hub
ACXPA Contact Centre Hub — resources, guides and tools covering workforce management, staffing models, and contact centre operations best practice.
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CC Roundtables
Contact Centre Manager Roundtables — hear from contact centre leaders on workforce models, flexible staffing, and managing employment compliance in a changing regulatory environment.
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Industry Report
Australian Contact Centre Industry Best Practice Report — annual benchmarking data on staffing models, workforce trends, and operational benchmarks across Australian contact centres.
Browse Labour Hire Providers for Contact Centres in Australia Below
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