There are 2 likely outcomes of an investigation:

1. There are contraventions of Commonwealth workplace laws.
2. There are no contraventions of Commonwealth workplace laws.

When no contraventions are found, the Fair Work Inspector will tell the parties involved.

When contraventions are found

When a Fair Work Inspector finds a contravention, they usually send the party a contravention letter and / or a compliance notice explaining the matter and how they can fix it.

In this case, the Fair Work Inspector invites the party to fix the problem voluntarily.

Contravention letters & compliance notices

• Contravention letter: identifies the problems and asks the party to fix them within 14 days. Where a contravention cannot be fixed (eg. you cannot 'un-coerce' someone), the contravention letter will contain information on what happens next
  
  
• Compliance notice: details the problems and what the party needs to do to fix them (eg. the amount they need to pay the employee within the 14 days). It also explains that the party can get a court to review the notice if they meet the grounds for a review
  
  

Compliance notices can only be issued in very specific circumstances. For example, they cannot be issued if the complaint relates to contraventions that happened before 1 July 2009. For these cases, we issue the party a contravention letter.

A party doesn’t voluntarily fix the contravention

If the party doesn’t fix the contraventions in the letter or notice within the 14 days, the Fair Work Inspector may take further action, including:

• telling the employee the next steps they can take, such as taking small claims action
• recommending we negotiate an undertaking with the party (where a compliance notice hasn’t been issued)
  
• recommending we take the party to court (start litigation)
  
• issuing an infringement notice.
  
  

If we start litigation and it's successful, the court may order the party to pay the employee what they’re owed.

The court may require the party to pay a penalty as well as any money owed to the employee.

If the Fair Work Inspector issues the party an infringement notice (a fine), they must pay the amount that appears in the notice.

If the party doesn't pay the fine, we may start legal action against them for either failing to pay the fine, or for the original contravention.
 

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