Victoria's 2026 Labour Hire Changes: What They Mean If You Hire a Cleaning Company

If a cleaning company sends people to clean your office, clinic, school, shop or childcare centre in Victoria, the law almost certainly treats that as labour hire. That has been true since the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 took effect in 2019. What changed in 2026 is how hard the rules bite, and how far down a subcontracting chain they reach.

This post sets out what changed and when. The rest of this week's posts go into the fines, how to check a licence, subcontracting, and which cleaning set-ups need a licence. It is a general guide, not legal advice. The Labour Hire Authority's own pages are the place to check the detail.

The short version

Cleaning commercial premises in Victoria is labour hire. The cleaning company needs a licence from the Labour Hire Authority (LHA).
The business that uses the cleaners, which the law calls the host, must only use a licensed provider. That duty is yours, not just the cleaner's.
Fines for using an unlicensed provider exceed $660,000 for a company and $160,000 for an individual.
From 1 October 2026, every business in the chain that supplies labour needs a licence, including subcontractors and middlemen that do not employ anyone themselves.

How the changes rolled out

The changes come from the Labour Hire Legislation Amendment (Licensing) Act, which passed the Victorian Parliament in December 2025. They started in three stages.

December 2025: more powers for the regulator

The LHA can demand documents by written notice when it investigates or monitors compliance.
It can publish more about licensing action, including the business name and the reasons a licence was cancelled. In practice, a cleaner that loses its licence can now be named publicly, with the reasons.
A new offence protects workers who report problems to Workforce Inspectorate Victoria. Threatening them or causing them detriment carries up to 1,200 penalty units, up to 10 years in prison, or both.

1 June 2026: a harder test for who can hold a licence

Fit and proper person test. Directors, nominated officers and anyone with real control of the business must pass it. The LHA can now weigh their character, honesty and integrity, and whether they are influenced or controlled by someone who would fail the test. That targets the "clean front, banned person behind it" set-up.
Wider compliance history. The LHA can look at a provider's record across tax, superannuation, workplace safety (including psychosocial hazards), migration, consumer and corporations law, not only workplace and labour hire law. A cleaner with unpaid super or a WorkSafe record can lose its licence for that.
Financial viability. Applicants and renewing licence holders must declare they are financially viable, and the LHA must be satisfied of that before it grants or renews a licence.
30-day notice. A provider must tell the LHA within 30 days if one of its key people stops being fit and proper.

1 October 2026: the supply-chain definition

The definition of providing labour hire services now turns on whether an arrangement has the character of labour supply. The LHA says the aim is to make clear that a licence is needed to supply labour at any point in a supply chain.

That matters in cleaning, where work is often passed down a chain: from a facilities manager, to a cleaning company, to a subcontractor, sometimes to another subcontractor. Each link that supplies workers now plainly needs its own licence, including bare intermediaries, which are businesses that place workers without employing them. We cover this in detail in the 1 October subcontracting rule.

What it means if you hire a cleaner

Most businesses will not need to change their cleaner. The law was already clear that commercial cleaning needs a licence. What the 2026 changes do is:

make a lapsed or cancelled licence more likely. The bar for keeping a licence is higher, so check yours does not lapse quietly mid-contract.
make subcontracting harder to hide behind. "Our subcontractor handles your site" is no longer a grey area. That subcontractor needs a licence too.
make it more public when a provider fails. Named cancellations mean your clients, staff or auditors may see it before you do.

The practical steps for a host have not changed much, but they now matter more:

Check the register before you sign, and keep checking during the contract. Our guide on how to check a cleaner's labour hire licence walks through it.
Ask who will actually clean your site: employees, subcontractors or independent contractors? Get that answer in writing.
Put it in the contract. That means a licence warranty, notice of any change, and approval before subcontracting. Our post on commercial cleaning contract clauses covers the rest of the contract.
Keep a record of each check. If the LHA ever asks, the record is your evidence.

A note for businesses with sites in South Australia

South Australia widened its own labour hire scheme to cover every industry from January 2026, with providers required to be licensed by 29 July 2026. Hosts there also face penalties, up to $400,000 for a company and $140,000 for an individual, for using an unlicensed provider. If you manage sites in both states, check both registers.

Where we stand

Star Shining Facility Solutions holds a Victorian labour hire licence for commercial cleaning, and you can look us up on the LHA's public register by name. We do not subcontract our Victorian sites to other cleaning companies, so there is no hidden link in the chain. We are also independently certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and AS/NZS 4801 (see accreditations). If you are reviewing your cleaning contract in light of these changes, ask for a walkthrough and we will show you how our cleaners are engaged for your site.