In Australia, labour hire is referred to by the legal term of art labour hire arrangement, and it refers to the employment practice of an employer supplying its employees to another workplace, for profit.[1][2]
Labour hire arrangements often overlap with, but are distinct from the practice of temporary staffing. Labour hire arrangements are situations in which an employee has a legal employer, but no direct employment contract with the place of work.[3]
Companies that provide labour hire are often referred to as 'recruitment agencies' however, labour hire arrangements do not involve an agency relationship with an employee or the worksite in a legal sense. The labour hire company is paid for services provided to the worksite by the employee, they are not paid as an agent for the cost of recruitment per se.
The labour hire arrangement can be contrasted with other recruitment business dealings, that involve a finder's fee paid to an agency for helping a workplace obtain an employee.