Employment Scams

Ads can be misleading because:

• they don’t have enough information; or
• they are written to deliberately mislead you, because they want to hide what the job really is, or make you think there is a job when there isn’t.

It is unlawful for job ads to include pay rates that are less than the minimum wage, or any applicable pay rate in

the relevant Modern Award or Enterprise Agreement. These ads can be reported to the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Misleading job and business opportunity ads are unlawful under Australian Consumer Law and should be reported to the relevant authorities:

• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC); and
• Consumer Affairs Victoria; or
• Office of Fair Trading – Queensland; or
• Consumer, Building and Occupational Services – Tasmania.

Before accepting a new job, you should find out about:

• your employment status (i.e. would you be a permanent/casual/fixed-term employee? Will your hours be full- time or part-time? Alternatively, will you be an independent contractor?)
• what type of work you would have to do (i.e. what are your duties)?
• if you would be covered by a Modern Award, Enterprise Agreement
• if you would have a written employment contract
• how much, when, and how you would be paid
• whether the gross pay includes or excludes superannuation
• where the employer operates from, etc.

You should receive direct answers to your questions. If the employer is avoiding answering any of these questions, take this as a warning sign.

Things to watch out for

1. Jobs that aren’t real
2. Misleading income claims
3. Training courses disguised as employment
4. Contracting jobs disguised as employment
5. ‘Commission only’ jobs
6. An instant interview

For more information about employment scams, we recommend you download the ‘Employment Scams’ Fact Sheet.

For further support

Call our Telephone Information Service on Melbourne Metro (03) 9662 1933 or Regional Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania on 1800 331 617.