Fair Work Information Statement and your legal obligation to give it to new employees

Every employer in Australia that hires staff must give each new employee a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement (the FWIS). The obligation sits inside the National Employment Standards (the NES) in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the Fair Work Act), and it applies to every new employee, whether they are full time, part time, casual or on a fixed-term contract.

The FWIS is the document prepared by the Fair Work Ombudsman that explains what employees are entitled to under Australian workplace law, from the NES and modern awards through to freedom of association and how termination works. It is not optional paperwork. Failing to give it is a breach of the Act that can attract civil penalties, and the statement itself is updated whenever workplace laws change. This guide sets out who the obligation applies to, what you must do and by when, what happens if you get it wrong, and the practical steps that keep a small business compliant.

Who must give the FWIS and who must receive it

The obligation applies to employers covered by the Fair Work Act, known as national system employers. In practice that means essentially every incorporated business operating in Australia, together with Commonwealth and territory bodies and a range of other employers. If you operate as a sole trader or through a trust or another unusual structure, whether you are a national system employer can be less obvious, and it is worth having a lawyer confirm your position before you assume the Act does not apply to you.

Within that, the obligation is broad:

Every new employee receives it: full-time, part-time, casual, fixed-term, apprentice or trainee staff all must be given the FWIS. There is no headcount, turnover or sector threshold that excuses you, and there is no exemption for small business.
The trigger is commencement: the statement must be given before the employee starts work, or as soon as practicable afterwards.
Once every 12 months is enough: s 125 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) does not require the statement to be given more than once in any 12-month period, which matters if you re-hire someone who has already received it.
Related statements can apply too: casual employees must also receive the Casual Employment Information Statement (the CEIS) and fixed-term employees the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement (the FTCIS), each covered in its own section below.

Give the FWIS before or as soon as practicable after the employee starts

The core duty is in s 125 of the Fair Work Act: an employer must give each employee the Fair Work Information Statement before, or as soon as practicable after, the employee starts employment.

"As soon as practicable" is a short window, not a grace period. The Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance is that the statement should be given before, or as soon as possible after, the employee starts their new job, and for most businesses the safe play is to hand it over at the same time as the employment contract and the rest of the onboarding documents, before the first shift. There is no minimum business size that is excused from the duty.

Practical points on this duty:

Make it a step in onboarding: if giving the statement is a tick box in your new-starter process, it happens by default rather than by memory.
Re-hires: if you re-hire someone within 12 months and they already hold the statement, you do not need to give it again, but you should be able to show that they received it.
It must be the actual statement: what you hand over must be the FWIS published by the Fair Work Ombudsman, not your own summary, a contract clause covering the same ground, or an outdated version.

Give the current version published by the Fair Work Ombudsman

Under s 124 of the Fair Work Act, the Fair Work Ombudsman must prepare and publish the FWIS, and the Act specifies what the statement must contain. It covers:

The National Employment Standards: the minimum entitlements that apply to most employees, from maximum weekly hours and leave through to notice of termination and redundancy pay.
Modern awards: the industry and occupation awards that set minimum pay and conditions for award-covered employees.
Agreement-making: how enterprise agreements are made and operate under the Act.
Individual flexibility arrangements: how award and agreement terms can be varied to fit individual circumstances.
Freedom of association: the right to join, or not join, a union or employee organisation.
Termination of employment: how notice, redundancy and the end of employment work.
The role of the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman: where employees can get information, advice and help.
Right of entry: the rules around union officials entering workplaces.

The statement changes as the law changes. The Ombudsman publishes an updated FWIS whenever workplace laws are amended, so "the current version" is a moving target, and giving a new employee last year's version can still be non-compliance.

How you give it is flexible, within reason. The Act does not mandate a single method of delivery. Handing over a printed copy during onboarding is fine, and so is emailing a PDF or making the statement available through an employee portal that the employee can actually access and read. The Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance accepts both approaches. Whatever method you choose, keep a dated record of what was given, to whom, when and how, because the FWIS obligation is far easier to defend with a paper trail.

Give casuals the CEIS and fixed-term staff the FTCIS

The FWIS is not the only statement you may need to hand over. Two related statements apply to particular kinds of engagement.

Casual employees — the Casual Employment Information Statement: under s 125B of the Fair Work Act, casual employees must be given the CEIS:
- before or as soon as practicable after they start as a casual employee;
- again as soon as practicable after six months of employment, unless you are a small business employer at that time;
- again as soon as practicable after 12 months of employment, and then at the end of each subsequent 12-month period of employment, although the ongoing anniversary obligations do not apply to small business employers.
A small business employer is one with fewer than 15 employees at the relevant time, counting employees of associated entities, and counting casuals only if they are engaged on a regular and systematic basis. The milestones matter because they track the points at which a casual can exercise rights in relation to converting to permanent employment, and the CEIS is what tells them those rights exist.
Fixed-term employees — the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement: under s 333K of the Fair Work Act, when a person enters into a contract of employment that will end at the end of an identifiable period, you must give them the FTCIS before, or as soon as practicable after, the contract is entered into. That applies each time a fixed-term contract is entered into, not just once per employee.

What happens if you do not comply

Failing to give the FWIS is a contravention of the National Employment Standards. Section 44 of the Fair Work Act prohibits an employer from contravening a provision of the NES, and that section is a civil remedy provision. The Fair Work Ombudsman, an affected employee or a union can apply to the Federal Court, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) or an eligible state or territory court for orders, including pecuniary penalties.

The maximum penalty for a standard contravention of the NES is 60 penalty units, and 600 penalty units for a serious contravention, which is one that is knowing or reckless rather than careless. A penalty unit is currently worth $364 from 1 July 2026, and the value is indexed over time. Translated into dollars, the maximums per contravention are:

An individual employer: up to $21,840 for a standard contravention, or $218,400 for a serious contravention.
A company: up to $109,200 for a standard contravention, or $1,092,000 for a serious contravention, because company penalties are set at five times the individual maximum.
A company with 15 or more employees: up to $546,000 for a standard contravention, or $5,460,000 for a serious contravention, because NES breaches are among the selected civil remedy provisions that carry an extra five times maximum for larger businesses.

The maximums are per contravention, and a pattern of failing to give the statement across multiple new hires can expose you to multiple contraventions, although a court may treat a course of similar conduct as a single contravention when it decides the final penalty. The court always retains discretion to set a lower amount.

Enforcement rarely starts in a courtroom. The Fair Work Ombudsman can investigate a complaint, and its inspectors commonly use compliance notices to require an employer to fix a breach. If a notice is ignored, the Ombudsman can then take the matter to court, where the penalty and the reasons for it are decided in public.

A compliance checklist for your next hire

Work through these steps every time you take on a new employee:

Download the current FWIS: get the latest version from the Fair Work Ombudsman website and store it next to your onboarding templates.
Give it before the first shift: at the same time as the employment contract.
Give casuals the CEIS: at start, at six months (unless you are a small business) and at the 12-month and subsequent anniversaries.
Give fixed-term staff the FTCIS: each time a fixed-term contract is entered into.
Record it: keep a dated note of what was given, to whom, when and how.
Check for updates: when workplace laws change, the Ombudsman publishes a new statement, so replace your stored copy.
Re-hires: apply the 12-month rule so you are not giving the statement twice when you do not need to, but you can still prove it was given.

When a lawyer is worth the cost

Most employers can run this process themselves, because the statements themselves do the work. A lawyer adds value in specific situations:

Confirming coverage: establishing whether your entity is a national system employer, particularly for sole traders, trusts and other structures that sit outside the ordinary company model.
Auditing onboarding: reviewing your new-starter process, records and employment contracts to confirm the right statements go out at the right time, in the right version.
Responding to the Ombudsman: if you receive a compliance notice or hear from an inspector, early advice can stop a small issue becoming court proceedings.
Defending a claim: if proceedings are started for an NES contravention, a lawyer manages the defence, the penalty submissions and any rectification.

The version trap: keeping up with the current statement

The misstep that costs employers most is not the initial handover. It is keeping pace with the statement itself. The FWIS is republished whenever workplace laws change, and the casual and fixed-term statements sit on top of the core obligation, each with its own timing. A process that gives the right document on day one, but an outdated version, or that misses the six-month casual milestone, is still non-compliance.

The first action to take this week is also the cheapest: go to the Fair Work Ombudsman website, download the current FWIS (and the CEIS if you employ casuals), and attach them to your onboarding template with the date noted. From there, compliance becomes a matter of process rather than memory, and if you are ever unsure whether your process measures up, a short conversation with an employment lawyer is a small price to pay.