Labour Agreements

Labour agreements are individually negotiated between the employer and the Department of Immigration and can be used to sponsor employees for:

Advantages of Labour Agreements

The main advantages of labour agreements over the standard application pathways are:
  • It is possible to sponsor for a wider range of occupations under a labour agreement
  • Concessions can be negotiated on skill level, English language ability and salary level
  • Businesses offering labour hire services must have a labour agreement to sponsor employees

Types of Labour Agreements

There are a number of different types of labour agreements:
  • Industry Agreements: apply to certain industries, such as Dairy, Meat, Advertising, Fine Dining, and Minister of Religion
  • Company Specific: for individual companies to meet skill needs
  • Designated Area Migration Agreements (DAMA): negotiated to cover a certain locality
  • Project Agreements: for large-scale resource projects
  • Global Talent Scheme: for highly skilled niche positions that cannot be filled through other visa programs

Labour agreements require high-level negotiations with the Department of Immigration and may take many months or more to finalise where there is no template available.

Due to the high level of complexity, labour agreements are generally only recommended where a large number of workers are to be sponsored.

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