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BC Employment Standards Act regulates agencies.

Indeed. BC's Employment Standards Act controls employment agencies.

A section 1 employment agency is:

"Employment agency" is a company that seeks workers for a fee.

Foreign nationals as specified by the Temporary Foreign Worker Protection Act who must get recruiting services.

Section 12 of the Act licenses employment and talent agencies.

12 (1) Employment or talent agencies must be licensed.

(2) Paragraph (1) doesn't apply to a one-company employment agency.

BC's Employment Standards Act Director grants licenses that meet the section's definition and application conditions. job consultancy in BC.

Procedure

Workflow:

The agency sends the Director of Employment Standards a formal application and $100 fee.

The Director may only award an employment agency license if the applicant: a. Completed a director-required written application (Click Here for Form), b. Paid the $100 application fee, and c. Information convinced the director that the applicant would manage an employment agency in the best interests of employers and job seekers.

The Director analyzes if 2 (c). A director can revoke an agency's license (see more below).

Records

In employment litigation, employment agencies often provide recruiting evidence. The ESR requires employment agencies to keep several records:

(1) A job agency must:

Name and location of each employer the agency serves. Name, occupation, and address of each person sent to an employer or provided information about employers needing workers.

(2) Document

English documents must be preserved for 2 years at the agency's BC office.

License cancellations

Section 4 of the Employment Standards Regulation allows the Director to terminate or suspend an employment agency's license if it seems to be undertaking illegal actions or not serving employers or workers.

(a) the agency applies for a license fraudulently;

(b) agency violates Employment Standards Act or regulation;

(c) the agency harms businesses and job seekers;

(d) the agency places a domestic [a person employed at an employer's private residence to provide cooking, cleaning, child care, or other services and lives at the residence] with an employer and does not inform the employer of the requirement to register the domestic with the Employment Standards Branch.

What happens if an agency violates this?

The Employment Standards Branch may penalise a violating agency.

In 2021 BCEST 48, a man formed a staffing agency without a license. The Employment Standards Branch approved their application because the company was growing. $500 was fined.

In this case, the agency appealed the judgment to dismiss their penalty appeal, claiming they didn't require a license as they only worked for one customer. The company declined reconsideration to gain customers. One customer didn't signal expansion. Employers and workers benefit when an agency is licensed (per the Employment Standards Act). According to the ESAT, the agency's business goals required a license.

8. The applicant is a legal "employment agency" Single-company recruiting is unlicensed. This exemption isn't dependent on a company's number of customers; rather, it needs exclusivity. As did the member on appeal, I'm inclined to accept that the applicant only recruited for one customer (although, the evidence on this point is somewhat equivocal). No evidence demonstrates the applicant had an exclusive customer.

This startup may have had one customer early on. Delegate's notes show the applicant wasn't running a "single-client" agency. Instead, it was willing to take on as many customers as it could handle in high tech, finance, oil, and construction. License application didn't mention "single-client" agency (i.e., hiring exclusively for one employer). The application said the organization "finds and recruits clients and applications" (my underlining).

The Appeal Decision's reasoning is sound. This application doesn't challenge the Appeal Decision's accuracy. This application fails the first Milan Holdings test (BC EST # D313/98).