Accessing our information
Find out about accessing information that we hold.
On this page:
- Information Publication Scheme
- Requesting information or documents
- Making a Freedom of Information (FOI) request
- Disclosure log
- Tools and resources
- Related information
Information Publication Scheme
Under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), we proactively publish information about what we do and the way we do it. Read more about our Information Publication Scheme.
Requesting information or documents
Most requests for information or copies of documents can be dealt with informally and quickly under our Information Access Policy. A phone call or email may be all that's needed.
See the table below to find out who to contact to request information or documents.
| The information I am seeking | Who should I direct my request to? |
|---|---|
| Information about your request for assistance | Contact the FWO officer you have been dealing with in relation to your matter. |
| Seeking advice or general information | Phone Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94. |
| Seeking documents held by the FWO | Lodge a Freedom of Information request. |
We can release documents under the Information Access Policy that relate to your request for assistance, including:
- documents containing your own personal information (eg. your request for assistance form and supporting documents)
- evidence we have that relates to your request for assistance (eg. time sheets, pay slips, emails, diary records, statutory declaration or formal statements)
- notes we've taken during our conversations with you (other than notes made during mediation)
- letters we've written to other parties about the issues in dispute
- tribunal, court decisions or authorities we've relied on when making a decision
- call information from our Infoline relating to you (including call summaries and recordings).
Read our Information Access Policy for more information about accessing information we hold.
Making a Freedom of Information (FOI) request
You have the right to:
- access documents
- ask for information about you to be changed or added if it's incomplete, out of date, incorrect or misleading
- ask for a review of our decision if we refuse you access to a document or change your details.
If the document you want can't be released under our IA Policy, you can apply to access it under the FOI Act.
We can refuse to release some documents, or parts of documents, if the FOI Act allows it. This includes documents that:
- affect the enforcement of law
- are given to us in confidence
- are subject to legal professional privilege.
Documents that have business and personal information in them may not be released unless it is in the public interest.
We will contact you to ask whether you agree to exclude public servants' names and contact details, where this information does not appear to be specifically relevant to the scope of an FOI request.
To make an FOI request you need to put your request in writing with the following information:
- stating that you're making an application under the FOI Act
- provide detailed information about the document you want, so we can identify it quickly
- provide contact details so we can send you notices under the FOI Act (eg. email, postal, address or fax number).
Send your request to us:
- at foi@fwo.gov.au
- post to Information Governance Team, Fair Work Ombudsman, GPO Box 9887 Melbourne VIC 3001.
We will always aim to send you a decision within the statutory timeframes allowed under the FOI Act. This generally means within 30 days from the day after we receive your request, but this timeframe will be extended if we have to consult with any third parties or for other reasons including the complexity of a request or the volume of documents sought. Like many government agencies, our staff’s ability to process FOI requests may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we may seek applicants’ agreement to extend processing timeframes connected to some requests.
Fees and charges
There's no application fee to make an FOI request.
There are no processing charges for documents containing your own personal information.
Processing charges may apply to other requests.
Read our FOI charges fact sheet to find out more about these charges.
If you disagree with our decision
When we've made a decision on your FOI request, we'll send you a letter explaining our decision and your review and appeal rights.
You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:
- if we refuse to give you access to all or part of a document or if we defer giving you access
- if we impose a charge
- if we refuse to change or add to the information about you that you claim is incomplete, incorrect, out of date or misleading.
A third party who disagrees with our decision to give you documents that have information about them can also ask for our decision to be reviewed.
The decision will be reviewed internally by another officer in our agency. We'll tell you our decision within 30 days of getting your written request.
Information Commissioner review
You can also ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review our decision about your FOI request:
- within 60 days of the decision or
- within 30 days after you're notified if you're an affected third party.
The Information Commissioner can:
- confirm our decision
- change our decision
- make a new decision.
More information is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's website.
Complaints
If you’re unhappy with the way we’ve handled your FOI request, let us know. We’ll see if we can address your concerns. If you remain unhappy, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
FOI complaints must be made in writing. You can:
- complete an online FOI complaint form (preferred)
- post your complaint to GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
You can find more information about making a complaint on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's website .
Disclosure log
The Fair Work Ombudsman is required by the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to publish this disclosure log on its website. The disclosure log lists information that has been released in response to an FOI request. The disclosure log requirement does not apply to:
- personal information about any person if publication of that information would be unreasonable
- information about the business, commercial, financial or professional affairs of any person if publication of that information would be unreasonable
- other information covered by a determination made by the Australian Information Commissioner if publication of that information would be unreasonable
- any information it is not reasonably practicable to publish because of the extent of modifications needed to be made to remove the information listed above.
We maintain at least 5 years of disclosure log entries on our website. You can view earlier disclosure log entries on Trove.
To the extent that copyright in some of this material is owned by a third party, you may need to seek their permission before you can reuse that material.
Documents are provided in PDF format. We aim to provide documents in an accessible format. If you're having problems accessing a document, please email foi@fwo.gov.au.
On 6 February 2023, the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) was abolished and certain functions and responsibilities under the Fair Work Act 2009 transferred to us (the Fair Work Ombudsman).
If you have a question about the ABCC’s disclosure log or wish to make an information access request for ABCC information, please email foi@fwo.gov.au. You can view earlier ABCC disclosure log entries on Trove.
| Request no | Date released | Summary of request | Document type | Supplementary information | Document |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IA-2283 | 14 November 2024 | Emails sent to and from either @abcc.gov.au or @fwo.gov.au between 1 January 2015 and 24 September 2024, from the email domains - Treasurer@dtf.vic.gov.au, Premier@dpc.vic.gov.au, @dtf.vic.gov.au, major Transport Authority and @minstaff.vic.gov.au | Emails | Release in full - All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C
| IA-2283 |
| IA-2288 | 29 October 2024 | The total number of both enquiries and RfAs received by the Fair Work Ombudsman regarding the fitness industry over the past five years | Spreadsheet | Release in full - All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C
| IA-2288 |
| IA-2236 | 30 August 2024 | Internal policy and procedures regarding FOI | Policy and templates | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-2236 |
| IA-2235 | 29 August 2024 | Internal policy and procedures regarding APP 12 | Policy and templates | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | |
| IA-2221 | 16 August 2024 | Time sheets, time records and expenditure regarding a proceeding | Invoice and spreadsheet | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-2221 |
| IA-1163 | 31 July 2024 | Details of any complaints or infringements lodged against Mantle Group Hospitality | Notes | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1163 |
| IA-2101 | 27 June 2024 | Documents regarding the Record my hours (RMH) app | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-2101 (Part 2) |
| IA-2132 | 23 May 2024 | Documents relating to the case of Fair Work Ombudsman v Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (M1 Yatala Exit 41 Case) | Submissions | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-2132 |
| IA-2101 | 22 May 2024 | Documents regarding the Record my hours (RMH) app | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-2101 |
| IA-2041 | 19 February 2024 | Between 1 July 2023 - 31 December 2023: documents regarding how FWO handled Robo-debt scheme. | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-2041 |
| IA-1044 | 6 February 2024 | Letter of Caution sent by the FWO to the Press Club and a copy of a letter sent to the FWO by the Press Club in reply to the Letter of Caution. | Letters | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1044 |
| IA-1844 | 27 October 2023 | Information regarding the Fair Work Ombudsman’s inspection of agricultural businesses since December 2021. | Table | Release of part 2 All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1844- part 2 |
| IA-1854 | 23 August 2023 | First ten emails sent by the ABCC Commissioner and reply to the emails. | Emails | Release of part 2 All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1854 - part 2 |
| IA-1854 | 17 July 2023 | Final ten emails sent by the ABCC Commissioner and reply to the emails. | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1854 |
| IA-1844 | 5 July 2023 | Information regarding the Fair Work Ombudsman’s inspection of agricultural businesses since December 2021. | Table | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1844 |
| IA-1853 | 29 June 2023 | The last five ‘all-staff’ or mass emails sent by the ABCC - Replies to the final email sent by the ABCC
| Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1853 |
| IA-1817 | 22 May 2023 | A list or report showing the matters (including enquiries, complaints and investigations) recorded in FWO systems relating to the following employers:
| List | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1817 |
| IA-1804 | 19/04/2023 | Applicant's interaction with the FWO including records of calls and notes held on internal systems. | Emails Notes | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | |
| IA-1792 | 11/04/2023 | Documents relating to FWO’s legal, advisory and conciliations services in regards to all Covid-19 vaccination cases.
| Report | Release in full All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1792 |
| IA-1734 | 09/12/2022 | A copy of the Fair Work Ombudsman’s estimates briefing pack, including back pocket briefs, for the 2022 October and November Budget Estimates. | Brief | Release in full All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1734 |
| IA-1693 | 14/11/2022 | Documents provided by Bupa to the Fair Work Ombudsman (self reporting) that pertain to the entitlements of persons employed by Bupa as registered nurses, enrolled nurses and assistants in nursing in the state of NSW. | Emails Letters | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | |
| IA-1458 | 28/02/2022 | Documents in relation to the FWO's investigation into Austal Ships in 2020-2021. | Emails Reports Letters | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1458 |
| IA-1507 | 18/01/2022 | Correspondence from the FWO to security companies based in NSW as referenced in the FWO media release dated 1 October 2021 "More than $300,000 recovered for security staff". This advises FWO contacted 16 security companies in Sydney, of which 4 were found to be non-compliant. | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1507 |
| IA-1506 | 18/01/2022 | Correspondence from the FWO to security companies based in VIC as referenced in the FWO media release dated 1 October 2021 "More than $300,000 recovered for security staff". | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1506 |
| IA-1505 | 29/10/2021 | Details on the number of FWO staff based in WA. Details on the number of FWO inspectors based in WA and a breakdown of their activity in the state in 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19. | Report | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1505 |
| IA-1390 | 09/04/2021 | A summary report containing the completion date of the first finalised:
| Report | Release in full All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1390 |
| IA-1154 | 18/03/2020 | Documents produced between 18/09/19 and 14/01/20 regarding the processing of the applicant’s previous FOI request about the assistance the FWO has provided to subclass 417 visa holders, who have undertaken three months of regional work for second-year Working Holiday visa purposes. | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1154 |
| IA-1109 | 20/12/2019 | The final report (or equivalent final review document) that underpins the announcement in the June 2019 media release about the FWO’s investigation relating to drivers engaged by Uber Australia. | Report | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1109 |
| IA-1025 | 08/10/2019 | Documents relating to the FWO's opinion that led to the press release about the FWO's investigation into the engagement of drivers engaged by Uber Australia Pty Ltd. | Emails Letters | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | IA-1025 |
| IA-1013 | 26/09/2019 | Documents relating to the FWO’s investigation into the engagement of drivers by Uber Australia Pty Ltd - including phone contact with Uber representatives and the number of drivers interviewed. | Emails | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | |
| FOI-1040 | 05/04/2019 | Correspondence of the then Workplace Authority concerning the certification of the Tindsec Labour Hire Pty Ltd Collective Agreement. | Emails Letters Tables | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | FOI-1040 |
| FOI-1018 | 03/04/2019 | Any documents from the archives of the Workplace Authority held by the FWO which relate to the Djooraminda Cottage Carers' Collective Workplace Agreement. | Agreement Tables | Release in part All information released to the applicant has been made publicly available under section 11C | FOI-1018 |
Source reference: Freedom of Information Act 1982
