Guide 2 of 5Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld), chapter 10
Recruitment services · Fees
Fees a job seeker may be charged, and the finder’s fee rule
In Queensland, a private employment agent must not demand or receive a finder’s fee, meaning a fee for finding or attempting to find work, from a person looking for work, unless that person is a model or performer, and then only on the conditions the Act sets. The rule is written about that one kind of fee; other states have their own laws, and South Australia’s and Western Australia’s are set out below as a selection.
General information, not legal advice. The official place to check is each state’s legislation register; for Queensland, chapter 10 of the Industrial Relations Act 2016.
Who the Queensland rule binds
The rule binds a private employment agent, defined in s 398 of the Industrial Relations Act 2016 (current as at 1 January 2026). In the Act’s words, with its dashes shown as colons:
“(1) A person is a private employment agent if the person, in the course of carrying on business and for gain:
Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld), s 398(1)
- offers to find: (i) casual, part-time, temporary, permanent or contract work for a person; or (ii) a casual, part-time, temporary, permanent or contract worker for a person; or
- negotiates the terms of contract work for a model or performer; or
- administers a contract for a model or performer and arranges payments under it; or
- provides career advice for a model or performer.”
Two kinds of business are kept out. Under s 398(2), publishing a job ad, for another person or for itself, does not by itself make a person a private employment agent. Under s 398(3), nor is a person who, for an agreed rate, makes its own worker available to a client, under the client’s direction, while remaining responsible for the worker’s pay and other obligations. That second description is close to on-hire, which is covered in the labour hire guide.
The rule in the Act’s words
Section 397 defines the terms. “fee includes charge, expense of any kind and reward”, and “finder’s fee means a fee for finding, or attempting to find, work for a person looking for work.” Section 400 then reads, in full, with the Act’s dashes shown as colons:
“(1) A private employment agent must not directly or indirectly demand or receive a finder’s fee from a person looking for work (a work seeker) other than a model or performer.
Maximum penalty: 16 penalty units.
(2) A private employment agent must not directly or indirectly demand or receive a finder’s fee from a person looking for work who is a model or performer (also a work seeker) unless:
- the agent gives the work seeker a written notice stating the particulars prescribed by regulation; and
- the fee payable is not more than the percentage prescribed by regulation of the gross amount payable to the work seeker for the work, excluding any allowances or payments prescribed by regulation; and
- the amount payable to the work seeker is at least the amount payable under an applicable industrial instrument.
Maximum penalty: 16 penalty units.
(3) Subsection (2) does not apply if:
- the private employment agent is also the manager of the work seeker; and
- the fee is payable under a written agreement between the manager and the work seeker.
(4) In this section: industrial instrument includes a federal industrial instrument.”
Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld), s 400
A performer is a person whose work is “to compete in sport or to act, dance, mime, perform, play, sing or speak in advertising or entertainment”, and a manager, under s 399, is an agent providing at least 4 management services to the model or performer under a written agreement.
Reading the rule at its true width
Section 400 is a rule about the finder’s fee. It does not say that a job seeker may never be asked to pay anything, and it is not confined to a charge that happens to be called a finder’s fee either: the definition turns on what the fee is for, finding or attempting to find work, and a fee “includes charge, expense of any kind and reward”. A charge for something other than finding work is outside s 400’s words; whether another law reaches it is a separate question.
Queensland’s Private Employment Agents Act 2005 also says a regulation may include a code of conduct for private employment agents, and that the code may provide a penalty of not more than 14 penalty units.
Elsewhere: a selection
Two other states’ Acts deal directly with charging people looking for work. They are a selection, not every state.
| State and Act | The rule | What else it says |
|---|---|---|
| South Australia: Employment Agents Registration Act 1993, version 2.12.2019 | s 20(1): an employment agent “must not demand or receive any fee from a person by virtue only of the fact that” the person is listed with the agent as seeking employment, or the agent is seeking employment for them. | s 20(2): that does not prevent a deposit, held until employment is found (then applied to any fee), the person stops being listed (then repaid) or both agree to its repayment; nor a payment the regulations authorise. s 20(3): no fee calculated on a recurring basis, and no fee where the agent hires or engages the worker to work for the agent. Breach is an offence with a Division 6 fine. |
| Western Australia: Employment Agents Act 1976, version 03-e0-00 as at 5 April 2023 | s 36(1): “On and after the expiry of a period of 3 years from the day on which this section came into operation, or on and after such earlier date as the Governor may by Order in Council declare in relation to any class of business specified therein, no fee shall be chargeable to an employee in relation to any transaction.” | s 34: no fee to an employee where the agent, or a business it is personally involved in, employs them, including where their work for other employers is arranged for casual or short-term periods. s 12: no one may carry on business as an employment agent unless a licence is held, by the person or, for a firm or company, by a natural person on its behalf. Under ss 7(3) and 8 the Governor may, by Order in Council, disapply the Act or grant exemptions. |
South Australia’s Act is to be repealed by the Employment Agents Act 2026, which had not come into operation at its 24 September 2026 version. The rest of the 1993 Act is in the South Australia guide. The Western Australian Act commenced on 1 November 1976.