Administrative and support services industry

Gain an understanding of the legal, operational and business issues relevant to the administrative and support services industry.

The administrative and support services industry includes:

• employment services
• travel agency services
• tour arrangement service
• administrative service
• building cleaning
• pest control
• gardening service
• packaging service
• support activities for day-to-day operations of other businesses or organisations

It’s important that you’re aware of the laws that apply to the administrative and support services industry. Key legislation includes:

• Competition and Consumer Act 2010
• Australian Consumer Law (ACL)
• Privacy Act 1988

State or territory governments manage the licences and permits for the administrative and support services industry. The licences and permits you may need include:

If you employ staff, you need to comply with Australia’s national workplace laws specific to the administrative and support services industry.

There are general occupational health and safety regulations  for all businesses, the administrative and support services industry also have state-specific WHS requirements, including:

• mandatory asbestos training for commercial cleaners and pest controllers in the ACT
• licensing for high risk work
• standards for protective clothing and equipment
• prevention of burns from hot liquids, surfaces or steam
• prevention of slips and falls
• prevention of injury from animal handling
• use of heavy machinery
• standards for occupational safety signage
• national standard for manual handling
• occupational noise management
• electrical safety
• handling, labelling, storage and use of chemicals or dangerous substances.

There are Intellectual Property rights that might be relevant to administrative and support services businesses such as:

• If you play, use or reproduce film, sound or video recordings you may need to get a licence from the APRA AMCOS website.
• Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR) will protect new plant varieties and grants exclusive rights to the plant breeder to use, sell and distribute the plant and receive royalties.

The main environmental concerns that businesses in the administrative and support services industry should be aware of include:

• protection of parks, flora and fauna
• protection of heritage sites
• water conservation
• sustainability
• strategies to reduce pesticide spray drift
• proper disposal of pesticides and other harmful chemicals
• proper disposal of trade waste
• biodegradable packaging options
• waste management and reduction