The Fair Work Ombudsman of Australia: An Overview and Analysis

This essay provides an overview of the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) of Australia, an autonomous department under the Ministry of Employment. The essay discusses the FWO's role in enforcing safe and secure workplace environments, providing guidance to both employees and employers, and protecting employee rights. It highlights the FWO's jurisdiction, covering both public and private sectors, including foreign multinational companies operating in Australia. The essay emphasizes the positive aspects of the FWO, such as providing education on payments, salaries, and employee rights, as well as taking legal actions against companies violating safe work conditions and denying employees their legitimate rights. It also explores the necessity of the FWO in protecting exploited workers, maintaining a positive image of Australia on the global stage, and ensuring the trust of Australian citizens. The essay also addresses the weaknesses of the FWO, including a lack of coherence and clarity in the Fair Work Act, issues with investigations, and the impact of government funding and the complex nature of the Australian workforce. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of the FWO in the Australian labor market and the challenges it faces.

Running head: FAIR WORK OMBUDSMEN OF AUSTRALIA
Fair Work Ombudsman of Australia
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
The Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman or FWO is an autonomous department under
the Ministry of Employment, Government of Australia. The body was formed on July 1, 2009
and stands on Fair Work Act 2009. They function as the representatives of the ministry to
enforce safe and secure workplace environment in the business organizations in the country. The
body looks into enforcement of employee safety in the business organizations and provides
guidance to both employees and employers in the area. The head of the office of FWO is
Senetor, the Honorable Michaelia Cash. The jurisdiction of the Fair Work Ombudsman spans
both public and private sector companies operating within Australia. Its jurisdiction also includes
the Australian branches of foreign multinational companies irrespective of industry and country
of origin. The organizations and the employees can gain information on the workplace laws on
the official website of the body. The FWO has its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia. The Fair
Work Ombudsman offices are also present in Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Darwin and
Perth.
Body paragraph:
The Fair Work Ombudsman of Australia are very effective in enforcement employee
rights and benefits in the workplaces in Australia and have several positive aspects which make
their presence in undisputed in the workplace scenario of the country. The business organizations
and their employees require the services of FWO to operate ethically and sustainably in the
market. The FWO provides education to the employers and their employees’ information on
payments, salaries, rights of employees and obligations of business organizations to their
employees. They provide resort to employees when they are exploited by their employers and are
denied legitimate rights like payments or made to work under unsafe work conditions

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(independent.co.uk, 2018). The Fair Work Ombudsmen can provide guidance to employees in
areas of tax, harassment of the employees in the workplaces, unfair dismissals, leaves and other
employment related disputes with the employers. The body forbids business organizations
functioning within Australia to enforce safe work conditions for all the employees in their
organizations. The body has also mandated companies to extend safety to their outsourced
employees. The companies engaged in activities where employees have to work under conditions
prone to accidents like construction companies are mandated by the body to ensure safety of all
the employees (theguardian.com, 2018).
The importance of the Fair Work Ombudsman lies in the fact that the body is empowered
to take legal actions against companies violating safe work conditions and denying their
employees their legitimate rights. For example, the Fair Work Ombudsman fined a Taiwanese
firm an amount of $ 900000 when it under paid its employees by $5 an hour (fairwork.gov.au,
2018). The body imposed heavy fine on a national level securities company called Securities
International Services Proprietary Limited when it underpaid its employees. The fine was even
bigger because the investigation showed that the firm encouraged its sub-contractors to use the
same exploitative behaviour on its employees. An analysis of these two cases shows that the
body is capable of taking actions against both foreign and national level companies. One can also
point out that the body is empowered to initiate formal investigations and legal actions against
companies on receiving complaints from employees. One can also point out that the body is
emerging as a necessity to protect employee rights in Australia keeping the rising exploitation of
workers, especially foreign workers in the country (independent.co.uk, 2018).
The Fair Work Ombudsman is necessary for the labourers because it protects their rights
and minimises their exploitation in the hands of their employers. Australia is a developed

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economy with immense power to generate employment. The country is also one of the most
sought after employment destination in the world which means that a huge number of employees
from nations like China come here in search of job. This immense inflow of job seekers in the
country have also given rise to illegal groups which exploit workers and make them work under
harsh conditions. There have been reports of farm workers and mine workers being exploited by
providing no salary and forced to live in poverty working for long hours without rest. There have
even reports of workers bring injured and being dying due to these situations (theguardian.com,
2018). The Fair Work Ombudsman enables the Government of Australia to rescue these
exploited foreign workers. It can be pointed out that the necessity of FWO is not restricted to
rescue of exploited workers but goes beyond that.
The necessity of the the FWO lies in the fact it plays strategic role in the foreign
relationship and the maintaining a high image of the country of Australia on the global stage. For
example, the exploitation of foreign workers in Australia can result in breaching foreign
relationship the country has with other countries. These incidences can malign the image of
Australia, thus reducing it form acquiring foreign talents. This would in turn limit the
innovations which the foreign employees carry out in the companies of Australia. These
exploitations would also reduce the acceptance of Australian workers in the foreign countries.
Thus one can easily point out that FWO rescues exploited foreign workers and enables the
country to create a strong employee centric image on the international stage (smh.com.au, 2018).
The third necessity of FWO lies in the fact that it enables the Government of Australia
build a strong and positive image not only before the foreign countries, but also among
Australian citizens. As per the Australian Bureau of Statistics, around 2.5 percent of Australian
belong to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander group as per latest data available (abs.gov.au,

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2018) (Appendix). There have been reports of these Aboriginal people suffering discrimination
and other unfair practices in the workplaces (smh.com.au, 2018). Such treatments are likely to
create fear and insecurity of the Aboriginal people regarding their rights and consequently lead to
erosion of support for the government. Thus, the FWO rescues these people from exploitation in
workplaces and ensure the trust of the residents of Australia in the government.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is an important part of the Australian judicial system and
plays significant role in settling industrial disputes. The growing disputes in the workplaces of
Australia, increasing dispute between the employers and employees, rising exploitation of
migrant workers and growing pressure to curb all these incidences necessitate FWO play more
proactive roles in the industrial landscape of Australia. This increasing necessity of FWO has
made the Government of Australia enact Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable
Workers) Act 2017to empower the Fair Work Act 2009 (fairwork.gov.au, 2018). These
empowerment of FWO would allow it to conduct investigations into companies breaching the
Fair Work Act 2009 and their franchisees, holding companies and outsourced organisations. The
FWO thus acts as a part of the Australian judicial system and help in settling industrial disputes.
FWO undoubtedly plays a very important role in Australian labour market but suffers
from certain issues. The first weakness of FWO is that it lacks coherence and clarity. For
example, the the provisions and laws of the Fair Work Act are often not comprehendible to the
workers which force them to take help of legal firms and advisors. This increases the cost of
filing disputes against employers in the events of exploitation in their hands. The employers,
especially the multinational firms have separate legal departments which deal with the disputes
(thewest.com.au, 2018). Thus, the employers are at more advantageous position to fight disputes
filed against them by their employees. This is evident by continuing bullying in the workplaces

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and breaching of the Safe Work Act 2009. This lack of coherence is more evident with the deaths
of workers at the construction and mining sites, though the figure shows a fall. The reports
published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the number of injuries has fallen in
2013-2014 but 25 injuries in 1000 persons is still quite high (abs.gov.au, 2018) (Appendix 2).
These accidents clearly point out the lack of implementation of safety measures in workplaces
and failure of FWO to curb this illegal activity totally.
The next weakness of Fair Work Ombudsman is lack of proper investigation into
employee exploitation cases. For example, a case involving the international supermarket chain
Coles and its exploitation of its suppliers revealed that the former has exploited the latter. The
supermarket chain even tried to use its market goodwill to turn the matter in its favour was
extremely unethical (smh.com.auv, 2018). The Fair Work Ombudsman could have investigated
into the matter earlier and taken stricter actions. There have been reports of rising corruption in
the government departments of Australia which also include the Fair Work Ombudsman. The
executives of the multinational companies often bribe officials and try to influence investigations
into exploitations of their employees. Thus, corruption and lack of proper investigation which
often takes place due to illegal influences impedes FWO from carrying out its full
responsibilities (abs.gov.au, 2018).
The government funding is one of the issues FWO faces and to certain extent it is aligned
with the corruptive practices prevailing in the government machinery of Australia. For example,
the government receives taxes and financial help from multinational companies. The
multinational companies even fund the political agendas of the ruling party to ensure its victory
in the election. This help the multinational companies offer to the government enables the former
to influence the latter in distorting complaints their employees lodge with the FWO against

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exploitation (governmentnews.com.au, 2018). Moreover, the FWO is depending on the Ministry
of Employment for its funding and powers. Thus, funding becomes an issue due to corruption
and influences of exploitative MNCs on the government.
The next issue which FWO suffer from while fulfilling its duties is the complex nature of
the workforce in Australia which, to certain extent is influenced by corruption. The workforce in
Australia is composed of employees working in organisations of diverse types, agricultural
workers and myriads of different type of voluntary workers (Reilly, 2015). The labour market of
Australia is also experiencing huge inflow of migrant workers having different skill levels from
other countries. The labour union and the government also exercise considerable say on the work
forces. Moreover, the Australian labour market also has illegal contractors which bring foreign
workers to exploit them on farms and make them work under unhealthy conditions. These farms
and contractors often supply products to supermarket chains which take no action against these
exploitative and illegal rackets (Baas 2015). The involvement of political and corporate
organisations makes conducting investigations involving worker exploitation especially the ones
involving big MNCs, political leaders or the labour unions. Thus complex nature of workforce in
Australia and its multiple stakeholders makes investigations of FWO difficult, thus impeding the
entire procedure (Reilly, 2015).
The next issue which Fair Work Ombudsman suffers from consist of limitation of money
allocated to its activities by the government. The body has to operate throughout Australia and
deal with innumerable companies and employees. Moreover, the scope of its work is so immense
that it has to maintain high level officers. It has to pay huge salary to these officers which put
immense pressure on its limited resources. Thus it can be summarised that limitation of financial
resources puts immense pressure on the FWO (Fayomi, Chidozie & Ayo, 2015).

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The next issue the company faces is that its officers are always under threats from
antisocial groups which are financed by exploitative companies. This risk of losing lives often
prevent the ombudsman officers from carrying out full-fledged investigation. The outcome of
this issue is that the suffering employees do not get justices and the employers can evade
Australian laws very easily. This is a serious issue because it endangers public trust in the FWO
and it importance (Reilly, 2015).
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that Fair Work Ombudsman in Australia play significant roles
in protecting workers against exploitation in hands of their employers. The services of the body
has been even more important considering the rising incidences of employee exploitation and
even death in workplaces. The situation has become even graver with exploitation of workers
from other countries which is capable of causing serious breach in bilateral relationships which
Australia has with other countries. Thus, the FWO plays a great role in maintaining diplomatic
ties of Australia by rescuing foreign workers from being exploited. The body rescues the
Aboriginal workers from being exploited in the work places, thus promoting healthy work
conditions and paving ways for economic development of Australia. The body plays a significant
role in upholding public faith in the government. However, presence of corruption hinders
smooth operations of the body. One can also conclude that the numbers of employers and
employees in Australia are too big to be monitored by one single organisation. This makes
tracing employee disputing and taking action difficult and complicated. Thus, it can be
recommended that the government should provide more support to the FWO in minimising
employee exploitations. The rate of corruption should be reduced in order to enable the body
function justly to promote human resource development in Australia.

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Appendices
Appendix 1: Population of Aborigines and Torees Strait Islanders lime Australia
Appendix 2: Graph showing work related injuries in Australia: