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Hiring law, a guide by Dotto

Hiring law · five Commonwealth laws · read on 10 October 2026

The law on hiring, beyond the licence: visas, pay secrecy, privacy and disability

Placing a person in work brings in law beyond any licence. The Migration Act makes it a contravention to refer someone for work they may not lawfully do, the Fair Work Act stops a contract keeping pay secret (a contract made before 7 December 2022 that has a secrecy term is caught only once it is varied after that date), the Privacy Act governs what an organisation it binds asks an applicant and tells them, and the Disability Discrimination Act reaches anyone acting for an employer in deciding who is offered a job.

Hiring law is a guide published by Dotto, in plain words, from the official sources listed at the foot of each page. Dotto does not recruit staff, run training or give migration advice: it is not a registered training organisation or a migration agent, and this guide is not legal or migration advice.

  1. Licence
  2. Illegal work
  3. Sponsorship
  4. Pay secrecy
  5. Privacy
  6. Disability

Five stops after the licence

Licensing itself is outside these guides. Each guide below takes one law, answers its question in its first lines, and names the section and version it rests on.

  1. Stop 1 · Migration Act 1958

    Illegal work and employer sanctions

    The referral contraventions that name a referral service directly, the coercion sections added on 1 July 2024, penalties in units, executive officers and prohibited employers.

  2. Stop 2 · Migration Act and LIN 18/036

    Sponsoring a worker

    Labour market testing step by step, the sponsor’s duty not to pass on recruitment costs, and the ban on asking for a benefit in return for sponsorship.

  3. Stop 3 · Fair Work Act 2009

    Pay secrecy

    The right to disclose, or not disclose, pay; the penalty for writing a secrecy term into a contract; and why a contract signed before 7 December 2022 can still hold one.

  4. Stop 4 · Privacy Act 1988

    Job applicants and privacy

    Where the employee records exemption stops, and what APPs 3, 5 and 11 say about collecting, notifying and keeping an applicant’s information.

  5. Stop 5 · Disability Discrimination Act 1992

    Disability and the inherent requirements

    Section 15 at the hiring stage, and how the Act links inherent requirements, reasonable adjustments and unjustifiable hardship.

The versions read

Each guide names the compilation it was read from on 10 October 2026: the Migration Act as at 4 June 2026, the Migration Regulations as at 1 July 2026, the Fair Work Act as at 7 July 2026, the Privacy Act as at 4 June 2026 and the Disability Discrimination Act as at 1 July 2026. A later compilation can change a section or a figure, so the Federal Register of Legislation, linked from every page, holds the current text.

Three things that hold across the five

The law speaks of “a person”

Most of these rules are not limited to the employer. The Migration Act’s referral sections reach a person who operates a referral service, and the Disability Discrimination Act reaches “a person acting or purporting to act on behalf of an employer”. Home Affairs explains that for its work-related contraventions “A ‘person’ includes a body politic or body corporate, as well as an individual.”

Penalties are in units

Commonwealth Acts state penalties in penalty units, and these guides print them that way. “The current value of one penalty unit is A$364 as of 1 July 2026.” Where a dollar figure appears, it is the units times $364, from that date.

Dates decide which rules apply

  1. 7 December 2022The Fair Work Act’s pay secrecy rules commence; older contracts are caught only in the ways the transitional rules set.
  2. 1 July 2024The Migration Amendment (Strengthening Employer Compliance) Act 2024 commences: the coercion sections and the prohibited employer scheme.
  3. 1 July 2026The Commonwealth penalty unit is A$364; before that date it was A$330.