A company-specific labour agreement: when an employer needs one, what can be negotiated, the evidence of need and the stakeholder consultation, and the months it takes

MARN 1576536

The kinds of labour agreement

A labour agreement is a formal arrangement between the Minister and an employer, or a group of employers, that permits the nomination of overseas workers for the labour agreement streams of the 482, 494 and 186 on terms the agreement sets, and the Department offers it in kinds: the industry labour agreements, templates negotiated for a sector, aged care, hospitality and fine dining, meat, dairy, fishing, pork, horticulture, on-hire, ministers of religion and others, which an employer in the sector signs up to on fixed terms; the Designated Area Migration Agreements, negotiated for a region with a designated area representative, which an employer in the region endorses into; project agreements for major projects; the global talent employer-sponsored agreements for high-skill positions; and the company-specific agreement, negotiated for one employer whose need none of the others meets. The company-specific agreement is the one with no template, and the Department's published position is that it will not consider one where a standard visa, an industry agreement or a DAMA could meet the need. The labour agreements guide sets out each kind, the DAMA guide the regional route, and the on-hire guide the labour hire template.

When a company-specific agreement is needed

• The occupation the business needs is not on the Core Skills Occupation List, is not reachable through the Specialist Skills stream's salary, and is not in any industry agreement or DAMA that covers the business.
• The workers who exist for the occupation, in the countries the business recruits from, do not meet the English standard, the age limit for the permanent visa, or the experience requirement, and the business can show why a concession is justified.
• The business's circumstances are unusual: a unique technology, a remote operation, a service with no Australian training pipeline, a project or a contract that the standard programme's timelines and lists do not accommodate.
• The business is in a sector with an industry agreement but needs an occupation or a concession the template does not include, and the Department agrees that the template cannot be used.

A business whose occupation is on the list and whose problem is the salary, the advertising or the time is not in any of these, and uses the standard programme; the occupation list guide covers the worker's side of an occupation that is not listed.

What can be negotiated

• Occupations: positions not on the skilled lists, with their own position descriptions, skill levels and qualification or experience requirements written into the agreement.
• Numbers: a ceiling on the nominations in each year and over the agreement's life, which the Department sets against the evidenced need.
• English: a concession below the standard level for the 482, and for the 186 under the agreement, within the floor the Department applies.
• Age: a concession on the 186's age limit for workers who will transition under the agreement.
• Salary: a concession on the income threshold for some occupations, within the limit the Department allows, never below the market rate or the award.
• Experience and qualifications: a different standard where the occupation's training pipeline justifies it.
• Permanent pathway: a 186 labour agreement stream pathway for the occupations, after the period the agreement sets, where the Department agrees.
• Duration: five years in the usual case, with the terms reviewed.

What cannot

The Department will not agree to pay below the applicable award or the annual market salary rate, to terms and conditions less favourable than those an Australian in the position would receive, to a departure from the sponsorship obligations, to a concession that is not justified by the evidenced need, or to an agreement whose purpose reads as replacing Australians or reducing labour costs; the concessions in a labour agreement exist to fill a gap in the workforce that the business has shown it cannot fill, and every term is tested against that purpose. A business that asks for a salary concession to make the workers affordable, rather than because the occupation's market rate is below the threshold, is refused, and a business that asks for English concessions for a customer-facing role is examined for why the role can be done without the language.

The business case and the evidence of need

The request is a business case, and the Department reads it for a genuine labour market need that the standard programme cannot meet: the positions and their numbers, with the duties and the skill level; the recruitment of Australians over the preceding years, with the advertisements, the agencies used, the applicants, the interviews and why the positions remained unfilled, at wages and conditions that are at or above the market; the training and apprenticeship programmes the business runs for Australians, and the pipeline that does not produce the workers; the business's financial statements and its capacity to meet the obligations; the consequences for the business and for the community if the need is not met; and the analysis of why the standard 482, the industry agreements and the DAMAs do not fit, item by item. A business case built on assertion is refused, and a business case built on three years of recruitment records at proper wages, with the training it has funded and the contracts it will lose, is the one the Department negotiates. The testing guide covers the recruitment evidence the case is built on, which is the standard nomination's evidence over a longer period.

Stakeholder consultation

Before it will negotiate, the Department requires the employer to have consulted the relevant stakeholders about the proposed agreement, which means the union or unions that cover the occupations and the industry body for the sector, and to provide the evidence of the consultation and the stakeholders' responses; the Department consults them itself as well, and an objection, that Australians are available, that the wages offered are below the market, that the business has a poor employment record, is weighed and can end the request. The consultation is done honestly, with the proposed terms shared and the responses recorded, and a business with a history of underpayment or of disputes with the union has a stakeholder problem before it has a Department problem. The consultation also covers the business's own workforce where it is unionised.

The request and the negotiation

1. Assess whether a standard visa, an industry agreement or a DAMA could meet the need; if any could, use it, because the Department will say so.
2. Build the business case over the months it takes, with the recruitment records, the financials, the training and the analysis.
3. Consult the stakeholders and record the responses.
4. Lodge the request through the Department's online labour agreement request form, with the business case and the consultation evidence.
5. The Department assesses the request, asks for more, consults the stakeholders, and either declines or opens negotiation of the terms.
6. The terms are negotiated: the occupations, the ceilings, the concessions, the pathway, the reporting; the Department's offer is rarely the request as made.
7. The agreement is executed by the Minister's delegate and the employer, and the employer becomes a party able to nominate under it.

The time from request to execution has run from six months to more than a year, and a business with a need this quarter is told that the standard programme is its only route in that time.

The agreement's terms, ceilings and charges

The agreement sets out the occupations with their descriptions and requirements, the ceiling on nominations per year and in total, the concessions and their limits, the salary floor for each occupation, the English and age terms, any permanent pathway and its conditions, the term of the agreement, the reporting obligations, and the Department's rights to vary, suspend or terminate for breach; the sponsorship obligations that apply to standard sponsors apply to the employer under the agreement, with additional terms the agreement sets. There is no charge for negotiating or executing the agreement, and the employer's costs are its own adviser's fees for the business case; each nomination under the agreement carries the nomination charge for the labour agreement stream and the Skilling Australians Fund levy at the rate for the business's turnover, and each visa its application charge paid by the worker. The obligations guide covers what applies.

Nominating under the agreement

Once the agreement is executed, the employer nominates workers for the 482, 494 or 186 labour agreement stream in ImmiAccount against the agreement, within the ceiling, for the occupations it lists, at the salary and on the terms it sets, with the worker meeting the agreement's concession terms rather than the standard criteria; labour market testing applies to nominations under an agreement unless the agreement provides otherwise, and the Department assesses the nomination for the genuineness of the position and the agreement's compliance. The worker's visa is assessed on the agreement's terms for English, age, skills and experience, and on the standard health and character criteria. A nomination for an occupation not in the agreement, or above the ceiling, is refused, and the employer requests a variation first.

Reporting, variation and renewal

The agreement requires the employer to report to the Department, annually in the usual case, on the nominations made, the workers employed, the wages paid, the training of Australians and the recruitment of Australians continued, and the Department reviews the reports and can monitor; an employer that stops recruiting Australians because the agreement exists has breached its terms, since the agreement's premise is that the need is continuing and unmet. A variation, to add an occupation, raise the ceiling or extend a concession, is requested with the evidence for it and negotiated as the agreement was, and a renewal at the end of the term is a new request with the agreement's history as its evidence. The Department terminates an agreement for breach of its terms or of the sponsorship obligations, and the nominated workers' visas are then in the position of any worker whose sponsor has ceased.

The honest advice

Most businesses that ask about a company-specific labour agreement are asking because a 482 nomination was refused, because the advertising found no one, because the salary is a stretch, or because an adviser has suggested it as a workaround, and for most of them the agreement is not the answer: the occupation is on the list and the nomination failed on evidence that can be fixed, the sector has an industry agreement, or the region has a DAMA, and the months and the business case the company-specific agreement needs would be spent on a route that exists already. The consultation reads the need against the whole programme before it reads the agreement, and says which route is real; where the need is one the standard programme genuinely cannot meet, and the business has the recruitment record and the stakeholder standing to show it, the agreement is the route and the work begins. The sponsor workers hub sets out the standard programme the agreement is measured against.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Section 140GB of the Migration Act 1958 and the labour agreement provisions of the Migration Regulations 1994, the labour agreement streams of subclasses 482, 494 and 186, the sponsorship obligations in Division 2.19, and the Department’s published policy and process for requesting a company-specific labour agreement, as in force at the date above; the concessions the Department will consider, the stakeholder consultation requirements and the processing times are matters of its policy and practice and the current published position governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each request; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.