Recruiter buys in labour

RECRUITMENT firm CPE has entered the labour hire arena by buying Victoria Park-based labour hire firm Actsum for an undisclosed amount.

Actsum has about 100 people on its books and an annual turnover of between $2.5 million and $3 million.

Labour hire industry veteran Charles Muscat will be heading the division for CPE.

The labour hire industry has been a taxation target of both the Federal and WA governments.

The Federal Government has focused on it through its Alienation of Personal Services Income provisions, which hit “employee-like” contractors.

The WA Government is broadening its payroll tax net to do the same.

CPE’s Paul Claessen said tax treatments would not pose a problem for CPE because the labour hire business employed the workers – they did not operate as contractors – so alienation of personal services income would not be a problem.

“And the business already pays payroll tax so that won’t change anything there,” Mr Claessen said.

CPE, listed 16th in the Employment Services section of the soon-to-be-released Business News Book of Company Lists, started out as an information technology industry recruitment specialist.

In fact, its original trading name was Computer People Express.

It has since diversified to cover recruitment in the health, office services, financial and temporary staff areas.

Mr Claessen said the company’s business model required it to become a multi-disciplinary service provider.

“The one area we didn’t have was labour hire,” he said.

“Our end goal is to work with fewer clients who spend more money with us.”

Its clients include Mercy and Royal Perth hospitals, some large manufacturers and the WA Government.

Mr Claessen said CPE was close to finalising occupational health and safety systems that he believed would give it a cost edge over other recruitment and labour hire firms.