Interpretation Guidelines Manual British Columbia Employment Standards Act and Regulations
EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS ACT - PART 1 - INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS
ESA Section 1 – Definitions – Employment Agency
Contents:
Summary
Text of Legislation
Policy Interpretation
Related Information
Summary
This section contains definitions for terms used throughout the Employment Standards Act and its Regulation.
Text of Legislation
"employment agency" means a person who, for a fee, recruits or offers to recruit employees for employers;
Policy Interpretation
To be considered an “employment agency” a person must be receiving a fee for recruiting or offering to recruit employees for employers.
Prior to operating, an “employment agency”must be licensed by the Employment Standards Branch. For further information on the Act’s requirements for employment agencies, see Part 2, ss. 10, 11, and 12 and licensing requirements in the Employment Standards Regulation.
A person providing information on employers or who provides a forum for the placement of advertisements by persons seeking employment is not an employment agency.
Example
Nancy runs an informal weekly meeting to provide hiring advice for people seeking employment. She often presents job information from her business contacts that are looking for employees. She provides this information as a service without payment from any person.
This woman is not an “employment agency” because she has not been hired by employers to recruit employees.
Related Information
Related sections of the Act or Regulation
ESR
- s.2, Licensing of Employment Agencies
- s.3, Employment Agency records
- s.4, Cancellation or suspension of employment agency licence
- s.9, Rules about licencess
- s.10, If a licence is refused, cancelled or suspended
- s.11, Surrender of licence
- s.12, Appeals from the refusal, cancellation and suspension of a licence