ENQUIRIES

Over 2012-13, FWBC received 1657 enquiries with 972 enquires or 59 per cent being received via the 1800 hotline.

Issues raised by enquiries

A single enquiry can often involve a number of issues. Table 2.2 shows a breakdown of the issues that were raised through enquiries during the year.

During 2012-13, the highest number of enquires FWBC received related to wages and entitlements, accounting for 18 per cent of all enquiries and reflects FWBC’s activities on recovering unpaid wages and entitlements for workers. Building Code enquiries, accounted for 12 per cent of enquiries. While FWBC was only in operation for one month of the 2011-12 financial year, the current financial year data is consistent with the data from last year when averaged over a period of twelve months.

TABLE 2.1 NUMBER AND METHOD OF ENQUIRY TO FWBC

TABLE 2.2 ISSUES RAISED BY ENQUIRIES

TABLE 2.3 ENQUIRY OUTCOMES

Responding to enquiries

During the reporting period, FWBC responded to 91 per cent of enquiries within three working days.

Activities generated by enquiries

Table 2.3 sets out the outcome of enquiries. In 59 per cent of cases FWBC answered the enquiry through the provision of information. Twenty-one per cent of enquiries led to an investigation and FWBC referred 16 per cent of enquiries to other agencies.

TABLE 2.4 INFORMAL REFERRALS

TABLE 2.5 FORMAL REFERRALS

Informal referrals

Enquiries that are beyond FWBC’s jurisdiction are categorised as informal if they are referred before an investigation has started.

Table 2.4 sets out details of the informal referrals FWBC made to 30 June 2013. FWBC referred 269 enquiries to other state and federal agencies during the reporting period. The majority of these were referred to the FWO as they related to domestic building (where the complainant works on projects where there are fewer than five dwellings) as opposed to commercial construction.