Warehouse Staff Hire Melbourne | Bluestone Labour Group

Warehouse demand moves in a way almost no other sector does. A distribution centre that runs comfortably on twelve people in February needs thirty in November, and then does not need them in January. Hiring permanently for the peak means carrying the cost through the trough. Hiring badly for the peak means missed dispatch cut offs at the worst possible time of year.

Bluestone supplies warehouse and distribution staff across Melbourne's three logistics pockets: the western estates through Truganina, Laverton North, Derrimut and Altona North, the north through Campbellfield, Somerton and Epping, and the south east through Dandenong South, Keysborough and Braeside. Where the role needs a licensed machine, see our separate page on forklift operator hire.

What we supply

Roles we fill in the warehouse

The roles around the forklift, which are usually the larger share of the request.

Pickers and packers

Order picking, packing, scanning and RF gun work. The volume role in most distribution centres and the one where accuracy matters more than speed.

Storepersons

Receival, put away, stock rotation and inventory work for warehouses running a real stock control discipline.

Dispatch and loading

Loading, unloading, staging and dispatch, working to the cut off rather than to the clock.

Inventory and stocktake

Cycle counting and stocktake crews, including the short burst volume placements that a full stocktake needs.

General warehouse hands

Materials handling, consolidation, wrapping, housekeeping and the work that keeps a floor operating.

Peak season crews

Volume placements built ahead of a seasonal peak and wound back after it, matched to your forecast rather than to a fixed headcount.

Forklift operator moving pallets in a Melbourne distribution warehouse

Compliance

Checked before placement

Warehouse clients screen harder than construction clients. We screen to their standard, not to ours.

Right to Work

Visa status and work entitlement confirmed

Warehouse Experience

RF scanning, WMS familiarity and the type of operation worked

High Risk Work Licence

Where the role touches a forklift, class LF or LO

Police Check

Standard for most distribution and logistics clients

PPE and Site Readiness

Steel caps and hi vis confirmed before the shift

WorkCover and Super

Casual employees covered from their first shift

Why Bluestone

Why distribution sites use us

Numbers built ahead of the peak from your forecast, not scrambled together in the week it starts.
Casual employees on our payroll, so wages, PAYG, superannuation and WorkCover are our obligation and not yours.
Shift pattern taken with the request rather than after the shortlist, because afternoon and night shift are the roles that are actually hard to fill.
Same day cover for absences, which in a warehouse running to a dispatch cut off is the entire problem.

Bluestone Labour Group holds Victorian Labour Hire Licence VICLHL11535. In Victoria it is a legal requirement for a host employer to use a licensed labour hire provider, and the obligation sits with you as well as with us.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Most requests are covered within 24 hours and same day is often possible if you call early. Volume changes the answer. Three pickers tomorrow is straightforward, twenty for a night shift starting tomorrow needs more notice than that.

Not for picking, packing, dispatch or storeperson work. A licence is only required where the worker operates a forklift, which is High Risk Work in Victoria and needs a current licence, class LF for a forklift truck or LO for an order picking forklift. Tell us which roles touch a machine and we will place licence holders into those.

Yes, and it is the most common reason distribution sites use labour hire. Give us the forecast early and we build the numbers ahead of the peak. A ramp up planned a month out is a completely different quality of worker to one organised the week before.

Yes. Casual employees are engaged on the Bluestone payroll under the relevant Modern Award and receive superannuation and WorkCover cover from their first shift. That obligation sits with us, not with your business.

Both of us, and neither party can sign that duty away. You control the site, so site specific induction, the traffic management plan around forklifts and pedestrians, emergency procedures and the safe work method for the task sit with you. We are responsible for sending a worker who has done the work before, holds the right to work, has been briefed on general warehouse safety and carries the correct licence where a machine is involved. If a worker raises a hazard on your floor, we want to hear about it the same day.

Other roles

We also supply

See all labour hire services

Guide: forklift licence classes explained, LF, LO and what your site needs.

Guide: planning warehouse labour for the peak season.

Warehouse Staff Hire in Melbourne