Wage theft

If you wish to make a complaint of wage theft, it is important to determine if your priority is to recover unpaid wages or entitlements from your employer, or if you wish police to undertake a criminal investigation.

Note that a criminal investigation might not result in the recovery of your wages or entitlements.

Recover unpaid wages or entitlements

If you wish to recover money or unpaid wages from your employer, you should:

- For private sector employment, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) on 13 13 94. www.fairwork.gov.au

- For public sector (state and local government) employment, contact the Office of Industrial Relations (OIR) on 3406 9999.  www.oir.qld.gov.au

- For unpaid superannuation, contact the Australian Tax Office (ATO) on 13 10 20. 

For further wage theft advice about recovering unpaid wages or entitlements, please refer to the Office of Industrial Relations wage theft fact sheet (PDF).

These agencies have expertise in the enforcement of Australian workplace and industrial relations laws and can provide advice on what you are entitled to and how to recover your unpaid wages or entitlements. Once advised, these agencies will also be aware of the conduct of your employer, who may then be subject to further enforcement action by these agencies.

A new streamlined process is also available to ensure wage theft claims through the Industrial Magistrates Court are easier, quicker, and inexpensive. Information on commencing a wage recovery claim can be found on the Office of Industrial relations website. We are unable to assist with this civil process.

Make a criminal complaint of wage theft

NOTE: You can only make a criminal complaint for a wage theft offence occurring from the date that the wage theft laws came into force. This date is 14 September 2020.

You are not able to make a criminal complaint for a wage theft offence that occurred before 14 September 2020.

For a wage theft offence occurring before 14 September 2020, you may still make a civil complaint. In this instance, you are advised to consult the Fair Work Ombudsman, Office of Industrial Relations, the Australian Taxation Office, or a solicitor.

If you wish to make a criminal complaint against your employer, you are to:

- Obtain a wage theft report form. You can either download the form and print it yourself, or you can attend the front counter of a police station and ask for a copy.

If you have access to a computer, you may wish to complete the answers on the PDF version of the wage theft report form on screen before printing it. If you wish to handwrite your responses, please print out the Word version.)

- Ensure that you answer all the relevant questions and provide as much detail as possible. This information is necessary so we can investigate your complaint. Provide all relevant documents as listed in the form.

- Ensure that you provide only copies of documents. You should always retain original documents unless you are specifically asked by a police officer to provide an original document. When completed, return the wage theft report form to the front counter of a police station.

Your report will be assessed and a QPrime occurrence for ‘wage theft’ will be generated. You will be given a QPrime number beginning with ‘QP’. Quote this number when making any subsequent inquiries about your wage theft complaint with us.

What is criminal wage theft?

- Unpaid hours or underpayment of hours

- Unpaid penalty rates

- Unreasonable deductions

- Unpaid superannuation

- Withholding entitlements

- Underpayment through intentionally misclassifying a worker including wrong award, wrong classification, or by ‘sham contracting’ and the misuse of Australian Business Numbers

- Authorised deductions that have not been applied as agreed

You can see the full version of the Criminal Code and Other Legislation (Wage Theft) Amendment Act 2020 at www.legislation.qld.gov.au.