Types of labour agreements

• There are five types of labour agreements:

• Company Specific labour agreements

• Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMA)

• Global Talent Employer Sponsored (GTES) agreements

• Industry labour agreements

• Project agreements

There are currently nine industry agreements in place:

• Dairy

• Fishing

• Meat

• Minister of Religion

• On-hire

• Pork

• Restaurant (fine dining)

• Advertising

•  Horticulture

Lodgement process

Requesting a change (variation requests)

If you want to make a change to your existing labour agreement, email us the following information with your request:

• quote your current Permission Request ID (PRID) – this will be in correspondence received from the Department at the time your existing labour agreement was approved

• a brief indication of what terms, concessions or nomination ceilings you wish to vary (subject to our assessment, we may send additional forms for you to complete)

• an updated workforce plan, including any retrenchment or redundancies of Australian workers

• evidence of all recruitment activities in the immediate 6 months before your request

• evidence of salary for each occupation in your agreement for an Australian employee and a skilled overseas worker.

Please lodge your variation request in a timely manner. This is important to ensure your business can continue to nominate workers under the terms of the agreement. It also ensures that any associated nominations or visa applications that are not yet finalised are not delayed or impacted.

Assessment process

We assess labour agreements on a case-by-case basis and actual processing times can vary due to individual circumstances including:

• whether you have lodged a complete application, including all necessary supporting documents

• how quickly you respond to any requests for more information

Labour agreement related nominations and visa applications

The labour agreement will tell you the number of skilled overseas workers you can nominate in each year of the agreement. It will also tell you which visas you may use to sponsor skilled overseas workers and the occupations.

As the employer, you need to complete a nomination application for a skilled overseas worker through ImmiAccount. Once lodged, provide the nomination Transaction Reference Number (TRN) to the skilled overseas worker who can then lodge their individual visa application (through the labour agreement stream of the relevant visa subclass). They require the TRN to link their visa application to your nomination application.

Labour agreement sponsor obligations

Each labour agreement functions as a contract setting out terms that you must comply with. Additionally, there are a range of legislated sponsorship obligations that you must adhere to. These generally align with the obligations applicable to Standard Business Sponsors. Failing to comply with the agreement or legislative requirements can result in suspension or termination of the agreement. Sanctions, penalties or other enforcement measures may also be considered.

The Australian Border Force and the Department may monitor compliance with labour agreements through audits and site visits.