The Fair Work Ombudsman can assist you if you believe you aren’t getting the correct:
- pay
- conditions (e.g. annual leave or sick leave)
- workplace rights (e.g. someone tried to force you or has forced you to sign an agreement).
We may also be able to assist if you think your employer (or prospective employer) is discriminating against you.
About making a complaint
We recommend as a first step that you do some research into your situation by calling our info line on 13 13 94.
We will ask you some questions so we can establish how your entitlements are calculated. So you can be prepared, we recommend that you visit Interactive call centre checklists and take the time to complete the Information you need before your call prior to calling.
As a result of your call we may recommend that you complete a Workplace Complaint form in order for a Fair Work Inspector to take a closer look at the situation.
Workplace complaint form
By completing the Workplace complaint form you will allow us to examine your situation in more detail. We may contact your employer in this initial stage to assist in establishing information that may assist us to resolve your situation quickly. If you feel that you may be adversely affected by us contacting your employer you will need to ensure that you have requested confidentiality on the Workplace Complaint form.
Choosing the confidentiality option does limit the actions we can take. A Fair Work Inspector will contact you to discuss your situation and what we may be able to do to assist.
You can make a complaint to the Fair Work Ombudsman if you're covered by Commonwealth workplace laws.
This includes employees who are:
- employed by a constitutional corporation (these are corporations that are trading or financial, usually Pty Ltd or Ltd companies)
- employed in the ACT, NT, or VIC
- employed by the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth authority
- a waterside employee, maritime employee or flight crew officer employed in connection with interstate or overseas trade or commerce
- employed by sole traders, partnerships, other unincorporated entities and non-trading corporations in NSW, QLD, TAS or SA (from 1 January 2010).
Time limit on complaints
While we may look into a workplace complaint that happened more than 6 years ago, we can't take the person to court or enforce the resolution of your complaint.
We can only look into and act on workplace discrimination complaints that happened after 1 July 2009. For employers and employees who were covered by the state system until 1 January 2010, we can only look into complaints that occurred after this date.