Can I have my employment contract?

An employee will often request a copy of their written employment contract from their employer, particularly if there is a dispute or issue about that contract. In fact, under Australian law there is no obligation on the employer to comply with that request.

Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) and Fair Work Regulations, employers have an obligation make and keep a record that includes within it the specified content about their employment, and to provide those records to a Fair Work inspector or the employee upon request.

In Hisense Australia Pty Ltd v Naskovski (2026), the Court considered whether an employment contract fell within that obligation. The Court observed that a contract of employment is a document that records the terms of the employment relationship and would generally be expected to contain the information required by the FW Act and Regulations. However, these requirements would not oblige the employer to maintain a written contract of employment and provide it on request.

That said, the FW Act and Regulations do require the employer to keep employment-related agreements and make these available on request. These are any agreement between an employer and an employee to:

average an employee's hours of work;
cash out an accrued amount of leave; and
implement an individual flexibility arrangement.

In a legal dispute, the production of the employment contract is likely to be required by court rules and legislation that obliges parties to anticipated legal proceedings to provide each other with documents that will narrow the issues in dispute.

An employee is entitled to receive from the employer a copy of any guarantee of earnings entered into by them, being the acceptance of an undertaking by the employer to pay the employee a certain level of annual earnings above the high-income threshold (currently $183,100), the effect of which means any modern award covering the employment does not apply.

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