Compliance and enforcement
Closing Loopholes: Fair Work Act changes
A new criminal offence for intentional underpayments by employers will be added to the Fair Work Act as part of the new ‘Closing Loopholes’ laws from no earlier than 1 January 2025.
We (the Fair Work Ombudsman) will investigate suspected criminal underpayment offences once the changes take effect.
Learn more at Closing Loopholes.
We promote compliance with Australian workplace laws and provide education about rights and responsibilities at work.
We choose when and how to allocate our resources to achieve the best results for the Australian community. Our agency priorities and Compliance and enforcement policy inform these decisions.
We make the final decision on whether we investigate.
If we find that a workplace law has been broken we can use our compliance and enforcement tools to ensure compliance and resolve the issue. Read more in our Compliance and enforcement policy Compliance and enforcement policy
Most of the time, breaches of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the FW Act) involve breaches of civil remedy provisions. This means that someone can be penalised or fined by a court if the court determines that they've broken a workplace law. We have a range of enforcement options for these kinds of offences which include:
Some breaches of the Fair Work Act are criminal offences. This means someone can be fined or even imprisoned if they break these laws. Examples of criminal offences in the FW Act include employer or employee organisations giving, receiving or soliciting bribes.
Currently, we don't investigate issues that are potentially criminal in nature. However, if these issues are brought to our attention, we refer them to the Australian Federal Police. Read more about who we work with.
