Labour Hire Insurance

The core program is public liability for injury and damage arising from your operations and on-hired workers, professional indemnity for placement and vetting errors, and workers compensation as the legal employer of your workforce - arranged under each state scheme you operate in, since arrangements vary by state. On top of that, client agreements often set minimum limits and certificate requirements, so the program needs to match what your host sites demand as well as what the risk needs. The first thing to establish is whether the business performs the work itself or organises and places workers who do - that distinction, along with who controls and directs the workers, decides how the risk is classified before any quoting starts.

The statutory workers compensation claim generally runs through the agency's policy, because the agency is usually the legal employer - subject to the state scheme that applies. A common-law negligence claim against the host business is a separate matter, answered by the host's own cover if it holds host employer liability. And if your workers compensation insurer pays a claim and considers the host was negligent, it may pursue recovery from the host. Our labour hire injuries guide maps the whole sequence.

It's worth serious consideration. Public liability responds to injury and property damage; it generally won't respond to a client alleging pure financial loss from your professional service - placing an unqualified worker, missing a licence check, or a vetting failure that leads to loss. That's professional indemnity territory. Some client agreements require it explicitly, and it rounds out the program alongside your liability and workers compensation covers.

If you employ workers in multiple states, you generally need to hold cover under each relevant state scheme, because workers compensation is statutory and administered state by state - different regulators, classifications and premium models. Getting workers assigned to the right state and classification matters for both compliance and cost. We help agencies structure this alongside the rest of the program, as general guidance rather than legal advice.

Typically: a certificate of currency for public liability at a specified minimum limit, evidence of workers compensation for the on-hired workers, and sometimes professional indemnity. Some agreements also ask the agency to note the client's interest or confirm specific extensions. Read each client agreement before you sign it - and if you're the business hosting the workers rather than supplying them, see our host employer insurance pages, because your requirements run the other way.

More than an occupation and a turnover figure. The submission needs to show who controls and directs the workers day to day, how the contracts between your business, the workers and the host companies are structured, and the turnover split across each activity stream - a business that does some work directly and supplies labour for the rest is running two different occupations, and each needs to be declared. Where subcontractors are being placed rather than employees, insurers will also want the contracts and evidence that the subcontractors hold their own cover. We ask for all of this before approaching a market, because it decides how the risk is classified.

The structure is very similar. A group training organisation employs apprentices and trainees and places them with host businesses, so it carries workers compensation as the employer, public liability for its operations, and professional indemnity exposure around placement and monitoring obligations. The host side of the arrangement has its own cover needs, which our hosting apprentices through a GTO page covers in detail.