This is our Document search where you can find specific documents such as decisions, orders, awards and agreements. For general information and forms, please visit the Fair Work Commission website.
Some materials may not yet be available, if there is a document missing, please provide us the details in our Document Request Form and we will email it to you.
What's new in Document Search?
We're continuing to make improvements to Document Search based on your feedback.
You can provide feedback or view the most
recent changes
here.
Looking for more information?
For general information and forms, please visit the Fair Work Commission website.
Some materials may not yet be available, if there is a document missing, please provide us the details in our Document Request Form and we will email it to you.
Search operators let you control and narrow down your search results.
Phrase Search - " "
Using quotation marks " " returns results containing the exact words within the quote.
Example: "small business employer" will show all decisions that have small business employer in the decision.
Search Operator - AND
The search operator AND only shows result with both terms.
Example: "s.185" AND 14 days - will only return results that have both s.185 and 14 days in the document.
Search Operator - OR
The search operator OR returns results with either terms.
Example: "constructive dismissal" OR forced to resign - will return all documents that have either the exact words "constructive dismissal" or variations on forced to resign in their text.
The OR operator will provide more results than the AND operator.
Search Operator - NOT
The search operator NOT returns search results containing the former terms but not the latter.
Example: "minimum employment period" NOT 12 months - would help search for MEP cases that do not involve small business MEP cases.
Proximity Search - ~
The search operator ~ is used for proximity searches, returning results that contain the words within a certain proximity of each other.
Example: continuous period~20 - will show results where the words continuous and period are within 20 words of one another.
You can use this operator to find legal concept, for example, continuous period~20 should produce decision on s384 that examine continuous service.
Wildcard Search - *
The search operator * is a wildcard used to represent one or more 'any character' in a term.
Example: industr* - will show results that contain industrial, industry, industries, industrious.
By combining operators, you can hone in on the exact cases you want.
For example: s.739 AND "Berri" Golden Cockerel~40 AND schedule AND ambig* NOT("variation" OR "217") - should return dispute decisions that consider Berri and Golden Cockerel, the use of schedules and ambiguity, without including decisions under s.217.
Search operators let you control and narrow down your search results.
Phrase Search - " "
Using quotation marks " " returns results containing the exact words within the quote. You can use this to search for agreements with matching ABNs, ACNs, Publication IDs, titles and business names.
Example: "Australian Tax Office" when searching in the Agreements document type will show all agreements that have the words Australian Tax Office anywhere in the agreement.
Search Operator - AND
The search operator AND only shows result with both terms.
Example: "Woolworths" AND "88 000 014 675" when searching in the Agreements document type will show all agreements that have both terms.
Search Operator - OR
The search operator OR returns results with either terms.
Example: "Woolworths" OR "88 000 014 675" when searching in the Agreements document type will return agreements with either Woolworths or the ABN 88 000 014 675 anywhere in the agreement text.
The OR operator will provide more results than the AND operator. It is running two searches side by side.
Search Operator - NOT
The search operator NOT returns search results containing the former terms but not the latter.
Example: "Metcash" NOT QLD - when searching in the Agreements document type will return agreements with Metcash that do not have QLD in their text.
Proximity Search - ~
The search operator ~ is used for proximity searches, returning results that contain the words within a certain proximity of each other.
Example: continuous period~20 - will show results where the words continuous and period are within 20 words of one another.
Wildcard Search - *
The search operator * is a wildcard used to represent one or more 'any character' in a term.
Example: industr* - will show results that contain industrial, industry, industries, industrious.
By combining operators, you can hone in on the exact cases you want.
Helpful hints for regulated labour hire arrangement orders
Search operators let you control and narrow down your search results.
Phrase Search - " "
Using quotation marks " " returns results containing the exact words within the quote.
Example: "mining" will show all orders that have mining in the title or order.
Search Operator - AND
The search operator AND only shows result with both terms.
Example: "mining" AND "Apple and Smith Mining Company" - will only return results that have both mining and "Apple and Smith Mining Company" in the document.
Search Operator - OR
The search operator OR returns results with either terms.
Example: "mining" OR "energy" - will return all documents that have either the exact words mining or energy in their text.
The OR operator will provide more results than the AND operator.
Search Operator - NOT
The search operator NOT returns search results containing the former terms but not the latter.
Example: "mining" NOT "energy" - would help search for mining orders that do not involve "MEU" orders.
Proximity Search - ~
The search operator ~ is used for proximity searches, returning results that contain the words within a certain proximity of each other.
Example: mining and energy~5 - will show results where the words continuous and period are within 5 words of one another.
Wildcard Search - *
The search operator * is a wildcard used to represent one or more 'any character' in a term.
Example: industr* - will show results that contain industrial, industry, industries, industrious.
By combining operators, you can hone in on the exact cases you want.
Helpful hints for minimum standard orders and guidelines
Search operators let you control and narrow down your search results.
Phrase Search - " "
Using quotation marks " " returns results containing the exact words within the quote.
Example: "road transport" will show all orders or guidelines that have road transport in the title or document.
Search Operator - AND
The search operator AND only shows result with both terms.
Example: "road transport" AND "employee-like" - will only return results that have both road transport and employee-like in the document.
Search Operator - OR
The search operator OR returns results with either terms.
Example: "road transport" OR "contractual chain" - will return all documents that have either the exact words road transport or contractual chain in their text.
The OR operator will provide more results than the AND operator.
Search Operator - NOT
The search operator NOT returns search results containing the former terms but not the latter.
Example: "road transport" NOT "contractual chain" - would help search for road transport documents that do not involve "contractual chain".
Proximity Search - ~
The search operator ~ is used for proximity searches, returning results that contain the words within a certain proximity of each other.
Example: road and contractual~5 - will show results where the words road and contractual are within 5 words of one another.
Wildcard Search - *
The search operator * is a wildcard used to represent one or more 'any character' in a term.
Example: industr* - will show results that contain industrial, industry, industries, industrious.
By combining operators, you can hone in on the exact cases you want.
This is where your selected filters will appear. You can select more than one filter option at a time.
If you select more than one filter, your search will only include results that are tagged with all the selected filters, rather than results that have either of the selected filter options.
For example, if you select both the “s.394 (Unfair dismissal)” Case type filter and the “Full Bench” Bench type filter the search results will only be those tagged as both s.394 (Unfair dismissal) AND Full Bench, rather than all the documents tagged as either s.394 (Unfair dismissal) or Full Bench.
You can use these filters to refine your search results. You can select more than one filter option at a time.
If you select more than one filter from different filter types, your search will only include results that are tagged with all the selected filters, rather than results that have either of the selected filter options.
For example, if you select both the “Educational services” Industry filter as well as “Current” in the Award status, the results will only be those tagged as both Educational services and Current, rather than all the documents tagged as either Educational services or Current.
If you select more than one filter from the same filter type, it will show all results that are tagged with either of the selected filters.
For example, if you select both “Pre reform Award” and “Transitional Award” from the Award type filter, it will show all results that are tagged with either “Pre reform Award” OR “Transitional Award”.
You can use these filters to refine your search results. You can select more than one filter option at a time.
If you select more than one filter from different filter types, your search will only include results that are tagged with all the selected filters, rather than results that have either of the selected filter options.
For example, if you select both the “Terminated” Agreement status and “Single-enterprise agreement” in the Agreement type filter, the results will only be those that are tagged as both Terminated and Single-enterprise agreement.
If you select more than one filter from the same filter type, it will show all results that are tagged with either of the selected filters.
For example, if you select both “Terminated” and “Quashed” from the Agreement status filter, it will show all results that are tagged with either “Terminated” OR “Quashed”.
This where your selected filters will appear. You can select more than one filter option at a time.
If you select more than one filter from different filter types, your search will only include results that are tagged with all the selected filters, rather than results that have either of the selected filter options.
For example, if you select both the “current” Order status filter and the “Mining industry” Industry filter the search results will only be those tagged as both current AND mining industry, rather than all the documents tagged as either current or mining industry.
The current consolidated version of all modern awards are available in the 'Award' document type search.
Determinations making and varying these modern awards issued after January 2013 are available in the 'Decisions and Orders' document type search.
Determinations prior to January 2013 are currently only available through each modern award in the ‘History of variations’ table. If you are still unable to locate a document made before this date, please provide details in our Document Request Form.
Pre-reform awards are now available in the 'Award' document type search, including documents that contain preserved long service leave clauses.
The former Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) reviewed and rationalised numerous federal and state awards to create a system of modern awards. The 2008 Award Modernisation materials are now available on the AIRC Document Search .
Enterprise agreements
All current agreements approved by the Fair Work Commission since 2013 are available.
Historical agreements, like state referred and common rule agreements are also available within the 'Agreement' document type search.
Please contact us using the Document Request Form if you are unable to find agreement documents.
Regulated labour hire arrangement orders
Regulated labour hire arrangement orders set a protected pay rate for labour hire employees who are working for a host business.
These are new workplace laws as part of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023.
Labour hire orders made by the Commission start from 1 November 2024.
Minimum standard orders and guidelines
A minimum standard orders or guidelines can be set. This can include employee-like workers and road transport contractors.
These are new workplace laws as part of the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023.
Major cases
Documents relating to all current
Major cases are available on the fwc.gov.au website.
Completed major cases (including 4 yearly review matters) are being added progressively.
We're continuing to make improvements to Document Search based on your feedback. If you'd like to provide feedback, you can email it to feedback@fwc.gov.au .
Enterprise agreements
A tag has been introduced for agreement statuses such as ‘ceased to operate – pre2010 agreement’, ‘extended’ and ‘pending extension’.
Additional tagging has also been added to identify the version of the agreement.
Filter tips are now included to help explain each search filter.
Decisions and Orders
Added links to cited FWC decisions when viewing a document in the Decisions and Orders category.
The cited links can be found underneath the document viewing pane with the heading ‘cases cited by this decision’.
At the moment, these links appear for FWC decisions that have been cited in the document and not for decisions or orders made by another court or tribunal.
In addition, upgrades were applied to ‘Member & Delegates’ and ‘Bench Type’ tags to improve search results.
AIRC Award modernisation
The former Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) reviewed and rationalised numerous federal and state awards to create a system of modern awards. The 2008 Award Modernisation materials are now available on Document Search.
The materials include decisions, statements, submissions, correspondence, exposure drafts, and research schedules.
This is the date the agreement was approved. Some of our older agreements do not
have data about the approval date. If you cannot find the agreement you are looking
for, please try the ‘agreement type’ filter instead.
This is the date the agreement is said to expire. Some agreements continue to
operate after their nominal expiry date. Some of our older agreements do not have
data about the nominal expiry date. If you cannot find the agreement you are looking
for, please try the ‘agreement type’ filter instead.
This category shows enterprise agreements that have been approved under the Fair Work Act 2009 from 1 January 2010 onwards and have not since been terminated, quashed or superseded.
Ceased to operate – pre-2010 agreement
All pre-2010 agreements that were still in operation (‘zombie agreements’) have automatically sunsetted unless an application was made to the Commission before 7 December 2023 and the agreement’s default period has been extended or the application is pending. This category may also include pre-2010 agreements that ceased to operate at an earlier time, for example, because they were replaced by a subsequent agreement.
Pending extension
An application to extend the default period for the ‘zombie agreement’ is currently before the Commission
Extended
The default period for the ‘zombie agreement’ has been extended by the Commission.
Other statuses
If an agreement has been terminated, superseded, quashed, or subject to a title change, the agreement status tag will show that status.
Single-enterprise Agreement: An agreement made by an employer or two or more
employers that are single interest employers.
Certified Agreement (Single Business): the Australian Industrial Relations Commission certified these until 2006. The Workplace Authority changed or extended these up to 31 December 2009.
Collective Agreement: the Workplace Authority approved these until 2009.
Greenfields Agreement: An agreement for a genuine new enterprise that is new or
about to start up and where the employer(s) have not yet hired the people who will
work under the agreement.
Multi-enterprise Agreement: An agreement made by two or more employers that are
not single interest employers.
Workplace Determination: A workplace determination is similar to an enterprise
agreement, but the terms and conditions have been determined by the Fair Work
Commission.
Work Choices Agreement: agreements that were approved by the Workplace
Authority.
This category shows regulated labour hire arrangement orders that have commenced operation under the Fair Work Act 2009 from 1 November 2024 onwards as specified in the order.
Ceased
This category shows when a regulated labour hire arrangement order has ceased operation under the Fair Work Act 2009.
Difference between minimum standards order and guidelines
Orders are legally binding whereas guidelines are not.
Minimum standards orders create rights and obligations. These will apply to the regulated workers and businesses set out in the order. The orders are legally enforceable.
Different types of orders and guidelines
There are 6 different types of minimum standards:
Employee-like worker minimum standards orders
Employee-like worker minimum standards guidelines
Road transport minimum standards orders
Road transport minimum standards guidelines
Road transport contractual chain orders
Road transport contractual chain guidelines
Select orders or guidelines and then search “road transport” in the main search bar to narrow down results.