Service Charter

Find information about our services, what you can expect from us and what to do if you aren’t satisfied.

On this page:

Who we are

We are Australia’s workplace regulator and our purpose is to promote harmonious, productive, cooperative and compliant workplace relations in Australia.

We are a different organisation and have a different role to the Fair Work Commission which is Australia’s workplace relations tribunal. We also have a different role to unions and employer organisations who represent workers and employers who are members.

We are committed to using our available resources to make an impact on priority areas to ensure sustainable compliance in Australian workplaces.

This Charter covers the services we offer, and what you can expect from us during those services and your engagement with us, including what we don’t do and what we ask of you when dealing with us. It also covers how we are accountable for the information we provide and how you can provide feedback or make a complaint about our services. For information about our compliance and enforcement role, read our Compliance and Enforcement Policy.

What we do

We provide a range of services to people who are covered by the Fair Work system. We are dedicated and accountable to consistently demonstrating and upholding the APS Values and APS Code of Conduct in every aspect of our work so that you have the best possible experience.

Provide advice and education

We are committed to ensuring everyone has access to education, assistance, advice and guidance to understand and meet their workplace obligations and entitlements. We tailor our service approach to meet learning and accessibility needs, including through our translated information and services.

We provide general information covering a broad range of topics that apply in most workplace situations through our website, online tools and education resources. Our information is regularly updated. These are our main information and education channels. We are committed to ensuring our information is appropriate for the audience and often use simplified terms and language to make the information easier to understand and apply.

For information and advice for your circumstances you can:

  • contact us for advice based on the information you provide us
  • contact our Employer Advisory Service for written advice if you’re a small business
  • contact your employer association, or union, or seek independent legal advice.

Help with workplace disputes

In the first instance, we will usually encourage and support you to try to resolve a workplace dispute yourself at the workplace level.

If you’ve tried to do this and the issue hasn’t been resolved, we can help you understand your options for what to do next. This may involve getting other support, depending on the problem and the kind of help you need. For example, a union or employer organisation can provide advocacy, representation and support in negotiations.

As an impartial and independent regulator, we offer services to support you to decide what’s right for your situation. This includes our step-by-step guides, tools and resources available on our website, and a phone-based Dispute Assistance service.

When you access this service, a Dispute Assistance Officer provides information, tools and guidance to help you confidently manage your dispute. This service is impartial and available to everyone involved in the dispute, which means we may also contact the other party to offer them the same support.

This service is not an investigation and we won’t assess any evidence. The Officer helps both parties to communicate clearly, understand their rights and obligations and explore options – including how you can continue managing the dispute yourself if there isn’t an agreement.

If another service is better placed to help, we’ll guide you there so you can access support quickly and effectively. This may include a union, employer organisation, community legal centre, state employment tribunal or the small claims list in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2).

Find out more about Getting our help with your workplace issue.

When we choose to investigate

We do not investigate every matter that is raised with us and you should not expect your matter to lead to an investigation. As the national workplace relations regulator, it is important we carefully decide where we dedicate our investigative and legal resources. We are committed to investigating cases that involve serious or deliberate non-compliance in priority areas.

You can read more about how and why we determine what cases to investigate in our Compliance and Enforcement Policy.

Monitor and identify non-compliance

We collect information from a range of places to improve the services we provide the community and act where it’s needed most. We offer people the opportunity to tell us what’s happening to guide where we focus our efforts.

We welcome receiving information and intelligence through:

  • what we learn while we’re doing our work, for example, when giving advice, providing education, or helping people with their workplace dispute
  • anonymous tip-offs from the public
  • details shared by other government agencies and community organisations
  • our own Inquiries and other proactive activities.

We treat all information brought to our attention seriously and we use the data and intelligence we receive to inform future compliance and enforcement activities.

Protecting your data and privacy

We are committed to protecting your information and privacy. Read about our Privacy commitment and Website security controls.

What we don't do

We are not an advocate but an impartial and independent regulator.

We’re not able to assist with topics outside of our jurisdiction. Find out more about what we can and can’t help with at Contact us.

We’re not a court or tribunal. We can’t make determinations about the law or how it applies in your specific circumstances.

We won’t:

  • provide legal advice
  • investigate all matters or allegations raised with us
  • provide personalised written advice in most scenarios.

We take care to ensure that the information and advice we provide is accurate and up to date, and we try to respond as quickly as possible, however there may sometimes be a delay.

What we ask of you

When you have any contact with us, we ask you to:

  • be polite, respectful, courteous and willing to listen
  • give us accurate and complete information
  • be prepared with the information we need to give you relevant information – the reliability of our advice depends on you providing accurate and complete information to us
  • respond promptly to any requests for further information – if we don’t hear from you in a reasonable amount of time, we may close your enquiry
  • tell us about any needs you have
  • not give us evidence unless we ask for it.

We understand you might be frustrated or experiencing difficult circumstances and we will do our best to help you, but we will not tolerate abusive behaviour. We may cease contact or correspondence if your behaviour is unreasonable. If we’re concerned about your welfare or if you threaten our staff or others, we may contact the relevant authorities.

Accountability

If we provide incorrect advice while discharging our statutory functions, and that advice is relied upon and followed in good faith, then in relation to the period between the person receiving the advice and being advised it was incorrect, we:

  • will not pursue a penalty for a contravention of a workplace law that occurs principally because of the incorrect advice
  • will assist in resolving concerns about outstanding entitlements and obligations
  • will require that any outstanding entitlements be paid as required by relevant law.

If we provide incorrect advice and there is a potential legal liability, any claim will be considered under the Legal Services Directions 2025 (Cth).

Feedback, complaints and requesting a review

We welcome your feedback about your experience with us. It helps us to know what we are doing well and how we can continually evolve our services.

There are a few things you can do if you think we have not followed our Service Charter:

  1. You can raise your concerns with the staff member you are talking to.
  2. If this doesn’t resolve your concerns you can ask to speak to their manager.
  3. If this still doesn’t resolve your concerns you can give us feedback, make a complaint or request a review of a decision we’ve made using our Feedback form.

If you’re not satisfied after making a complaint with us, you can contact the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

Related information