Home > Blog > Licensing Limitations Snipped for Hairdressers & Tradies
At present, there stands a web of conflicting and contradictory state barriers and fees surrounding licensing for tradespeople that hinder their ability to win work. The government have recognised these inconsistent regulations and have pledged to banish them in order to make it easier for workers to obtain licenses in pathing the way to job-creation.
The current licensing systems in many different industries can create obstacles for tradespeople across Australia, delaying and often losing business for workers. Following the current crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the labour market has suffered drastically whilst many areas of employment endure costly cuts and dissipating demand for business. Therefore, the government have acted to provide pockets of freedom where tradespeople desperately need it and would usually be held up.
Some of these current licensing regulations include workers being required to obtain numerous licenses, as well as having to apply with several differing processes and paying multiple fee expenses to be able to work across borders. Josh Frydenberg, Treasurer of Australia, stated that the agreement as it stands is ‘complex, costly and imposes an excessive regulatory burden on businesses’ and that state and territory leaders had proposed and agreed to a new arrangement whereby multiple licensing requirements are eradicated and workers would only be required to have one license to be able to work across borders.
Mr Frydenburg trusts that the simplification of these licensing requirements for tradespeople will drive employability and create more work, as state and federal governments negotiate their first agreement under new national post-COVID council.
‘Automatic recognition will help to address impediments to labour mobility across jurisdictions by allowing a person who is licensed or registered in one jurisdiction to be already considered registered in another in and equivalent occupation,’ he added. Those applying for multiple licenses as it stands may currently have to fork out hundreds of dollars for such privileges. This lifting of regulations is especially important for workers needing to relocate to richer areas of business in other states or territories and gives more freedom and flexibility to those affected by these restraints.
Not only does this lifting of regulations provide an easier road for tradespeople navigating employment through the pandemic, but also facilitates a much more positive and lenient labour market to get people back to work as lockdowns lift and the economy reopens post COVID-19.
Written by Sophie Cunningham; 1st September 2020
