Pecuniary Penalties

This material is designed and intended to provide general information in summary form on legal topics, current at the time of publication, for general informational purposes only. This is not legal advice. 

When your employer has broken the law and breached your rights, you may be able to ask for your employer to pay you a financial penalty, called a Pecuniary Penalty. 

Most workers in Australia are covered by the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Under the Fair Work Act an employee has many rights, including minimum pay rates, maximum weekly working hours, and leave entitlements such as annual and parental leave.  

Some rights under the Fair Work Act are known as Civil Remedy Provisions.  This means that when an employer or person does not comply with their obligations under these parts of the Fair Work Act, the employer or person may need to pay Pecuniary Penalties.  

What are Pecuniary Penalties? 

Pecuniary Penalties are similar to a fine which can be ordered against employers or people to punish them from breaching their obligations under the Fair Work Act and deter them from continuing that behaviour in future.  

An employer or person can be ordered to pay Pecuniary Penalties for breaching the following type of Fair Work Act obligations; 

• The minimum standards applying to employment of employees (The National employment standards), such as annual leave, parental leave, personal leave, compassionate leave, family and domestic violence leave, long service leave, public holidays, Superannuation, notice of termination and redundancy pay.  

• A term of a Modern Award 

• An enterprise agreement  

• A workplace determination  

• Minimum wages  

• Requirement to provide a Fair Work Information statement  

• An equal remuneration order  

• General protections provisions 

How can an employee ask for Pecuniary Penalties to be paid? 

• If you are a South Australian employee, you can ask the South Australian Employment Tribunal to order your employer to pay pecuniary penalties.   

• If The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking your complaint to court, The Fair Work Ombudsman can ask the Court to order your employer to pay pecuniary penalties.  

• If you have an employment law issue going through the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court, you can ask the Court to order your employer to pay pecuniary penalties.   

Who are Pecuniary Penalties paid to? 

Pecuniary Penalties can be paid to either; 

• The Commonwealth (for example the Fair Work Ombudsman), or 

• A particular organisation (for example a union), or 

• A particular person (for example you as the employee making a claim).  

When a Court orders Pecuniary Penalties to be paid it raises a debt to the person to whom the penalty is ordered to be paid to.  If the employer or person does not willingly pay the Pecuniary Penalty the person to be paid may need to undertake enforcement proceedings to force payment.   

How much are Pecuniary Penalties? 

The FWA sets out how much a pecuniary penalty is per breach. The amount depends on when the breach occurred and who was involved in the breach. From June 2024, the maximum amount for a pecuniary penalty per breach is $19,800 for an individual or $99,000 for a company.  

Some breaches can be considered to be ‘serious contraventions’ and in that case the maximum penalty will be $198,000 for an individual or $990,000 for a company per breach. 

It is unlikely that you will receive the maximum penalty, and it is important to get advice about the likely range of penalties you may receive depending on the type, number of breaches, and your circumstances.  

For further information about whether you can ask your employer to pay you Pecuniary Penalties, please contact your union, or the Working Women’s Centre SA on 08 8410 6499 to organise a legal advice appointment with one of our lawyers.