Do You Get Paid During a Strike? Work Bans, Stoppages and Lockouts Explained (2026)

No. In Australia, if you strike you are not paid for the time you are on strike, and your employer is not allowed to pay you for it even if it wanted to. But "strike" covers more than walking off the job, and the pay rules change with the type of action. A one-hour protected stoppage costs one hour. A ten-minute walk-off that isn't protected costs at least four. A ban on certain tasks costs nothing, unless your employer sends you a particular written notice. A lockout is the employer's own industrial action, and it can cost you the whole day.

This guide covers the parts the headlines usually skip: partial work bans, the 4-hour rule, lockouts and stand-downs, plus what employers can and can't do. Everything here comes from Part 3-3 of the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009, read against the Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance. For the basics of a protected strike, see our explainers on the FedEx stoppages and the Qantas ground crew strike.

Type of action	What happens to pay	Fair Work Act
Protected strike or stoppage (you don't attend, or attend and do no work)	No pay for the actual time of the action that day. A 1-hour stoppage costs 1 hour.	s 470
Protected overtime ban	Usually no deduction. Only overtime you were asked to work and were obliged to work goes unpaid.	s 470(4)–(5)
Protected partial work ban (you work but refuse some tasks)	Full pay unless the employer gives a written notice. With a notice: pay cut by a stated proportion, or no pay at all if the employer refuses your partial work.	s 471, regs 3.21–3.24
Unprotected action of any length (wildcat walk-off, unauthorised stoppage)	At least 4 hours' pay withheld for the day, even if the action lasted 10 minutes. Longer action: the whole period.	s 474
Lockout by the employer as employer response action	The employer may refuse to pay for the period of the lockout.	s 416
Non-striking staff who can't usefully work because of someone else's action	Can be stood down without pay, unless an agreement or contract has its own stand-down rules.	s 524

Almost everything turns on whether the action is protected industrial action. For employees, it is protected only if all of these are true:

• Bargaining is under way for a new enterprise agreement, and the old agreement has passed its nominal expiry date (s 417).
• A protected action ballot authorised it (s 409(2)). The Fair Work Commission orders the ballot. At least 50% of employees on the roll must vote, more than 50% of valid votes must approve, and the action must start within 30 days of the result unless the Commission extends that (s 459).
• The union or bargaining representative is genuinely trying to reach agreement, the claims are about permitted matters, and no Commission order is being breached (ss 409, 413).
• Written notice was given after the ballot result was declared: at least 3 working days for a single-enterprise agreement, 120 hours for a multi-enterprise agreement, or longer if the ballot order says so. The notice must say what the action is and the day it starts (s 414).

If any of those is missing, the action is unprotected. That changes the pay rules (see the 4-hour rule below) and removes the legal immunity that protected action carries (s 415). A refusal to work because of a reasonable concern about an imminent risk to your health or safety is not industrial action at all, as long as you don't unreasonably refuse safe alternative work (s 19(2)(c)). That is a safety stop, not a strike, and the strike pay rules don't apply to it.

For protected action, section 470 says the employer must not pay you for the total duration of the industrial action on that day. It is time-based. Stop for two hours and the two hours come off. Work the rest of your shift and the rest is paid as normal, with your usual penalties and allowances.

• Your employer can't pay you anyway. It is a civil remedy provision, so an employer that pays strike time can be penalised, and so can an employee or union that asks for or accepts the payment (s 473).
• Overtime bans are treated differently. A protected overtime ban costs you nothing unless your employer asked or required you to work specific overtime, you refused, and the refusal breached your award, agreement or contract. Only that overtime period counts (s 470(4)–(5)).
• Check the deduction against the notice. The deduction should match the hours you actually stopped, not your full shift. A 1-hour stoppage on a $30-an-hour rate is $30, not a day's pay.

A partial work ban is industrial action where you still turn up and work, but refuse part of the job. Legally, it is any industrial action that isn't a refusal to attend, a refusal to do any work at all, or an overtime ban (s 470(3)). Refusing to make announcements, refusing to process certain paperwork, refusing to charge customers a fee, or a teacher's ban on entering marks are typical examples.

Section 470 does not apply to partial bans. Section 471 does, and it gives the employer three options:

1. Do nothing. If the employer gives no written notice, your pay for the day cannot be reduced because of the ban (s 471(8)).
2. Cut pay by a proportion. The employer gives you a written notice saying your payments will be reduced by a stated proportion because of the ban (s 471(1)).
3. Refuse your partial work and pay nothing. The employer gives you a written notice saying you won't be paid, and it won't accept any work from you until you are prepared to do all your normal duties (s 471(4)). If you then stay away or stop work entirely, the law treats that as protected action too, even without a fresh ballot or notice (s 471(4A)).

How the proportion is worked out. Regulation 3.21 sets a three-step method: identify the work being refused, estimate the usual time spent doing it in a day, and express that as a percentage of usual daily hours. That percentage is the daily pay cut.

Worked example (illustrative figures). You work 7.6 hours a day at $30 an hour, so $228 a day. Your union bans routine announcements, which normally take about 1 hour of your day. 1 ÷ 7.6 = 13.16%, so a valid notice could reduce your pay by about $30.00 a day on days you apply the ban. It could not lawfully take the whole $228 under option 2. Only option 3 does that, and option 3 means the employer is also refusing your work.

What the notice must contain (regs 3.22–3.23). It must be legible and in English, and state:

• the day it is issued and the action that makes up the ban
• that it takes effect from the later of the first day of the ban or the first day after you receive it on which you work, and ends at the end of the day the ban stops (s 471(5))
• for a pay cut: the employer's estimate of the usual daily time spent on the banned work, and the dollar amount coming off each day you apply the ban
• for a nil-pay notice: that you won't be paid for any day you apply the ban

The employer can hand it to you personally, post it to your home or nominated address, email your work or nominated address, or fax it (reg 3.24). The notice is treated as given if the employer takes reasonable steps to make sure both you and your bargaining representative receive it (s 471(7)).

Think the cut is too high? You or your union can apply to the Fair Work Commission to vary the proportion. The Commission looks at whether the proportion was reasonable given the nature and extent of the ban, and at fairness between the parties (s 472).

If the action is not protected, section 474 is much harsher. The employer must not pay you for:

• the whole period of the action that day, if it lasted 4 hours or more, or
• 4 hours of that day, if it lasted less than 4 hours.

So a 30-minute unauthorised walk-off to attend a rally costs 4 hours' pay. The Fair Work Ombudsman puts it this way: the employer must "withhold at least 4 hours pay, even if the action was for less than 4 hours" (FWO, payment during industrial action). Unlike section 470, there is no carve-out for partial work bans, so an unprotected ban triggers the 4-hour rule as well. The same overtime-ban exception applies (s 474(2)).

Night shifts. If your shift crosses midnight, the shift counts as one day. The Act's own example: on a 10pm–7am shift, unprotected action from 11pm to 1am means 4 hours unpaid and the other 5 hours paid (s 474(3)).

The other consequences of unprotected action: the employer can apply to the Commission for an order to stop it (Form F14), organisers can be sued for losses, and the FWO says unauthorised absences don't count as service (FWO, industrial action). If you want to attend a rally in work time, ask for annual leave first. The FWO says an employer can't unreasonably refuse it, and approved leave is not industrial action.

A lockout happens when an employer prevents employees from doing their work without ending their employment (s 19(3)). It counts as industrial action, so it has its own rules.

• It can only be a response. An employer can't start industrial action in support of its bargaining claims. Lockouts are only protected as employer response action, meaning action taken in response to industrial action by employees or their bargaining representative (s 411).
• The common requirements apply. The employer must be genuinely trying to reach agreement, the old agreement must have passed its nominal expiry date, and no Commission orders can be breached (s 413). If the employee action was authorised by a protected action ballot, the employer must not have breached any order to attend the Commission's conciliation conference (s 411(3)). The FWO says plainly that an employer that skips the compulsory conference can't take employer response action.
• Notice. Before locking out, the employer must give written notice to each employee bargaining representative and take all reasonable steps to tell the affected employees, stating what the action is and when it starts (s 414(5)–(6)). Unlike employee action, the Act sets no minimum notice period for employer response action.
• Pay. During a protected lockout, the employer may refuse to pay the locked-out employees for the period of the lockout (s 416). Continuity of employment is not broken (s 416A).
• Limits. The Commission can suspend or terminate protected action, including a lockout, if it is causing significant economic harm to the parties, or must do so if it threatens life, safety, health or welfare, or significant damage to the economy (ss 423–424).

The FedEx example. When thousands of FedEx workers (the TWU's description) began two-hour protected stoppages on 28 August 2026, the Transport Workers' Union said FedEx responded by "locking workers out for the entire day", meaning workers "won't be paid for a full day" (TWU, 28 August 2026). The weekly Disputes Report, a union-leaning newsletter, put the number locked out at about 3,000. Its 29 September 2026 issue reported that the TWU had started Federal Court proceedings against FedEx and alleged the company also withdrew delegates' approved leave and weekend overtime eligibility. These are the union's claims. We found no court decision and no FedEx statement on the lockout, and whether it met the employer response action requirements is for the court to decide. The point for everyone else: a short stoppage can cost a full day's pay if the employer validly locks out in response.

If other people's industrial action means there is no useful work for you, your employer may be able to stand you down without pay under section 524. The rules:

• The industrial action has to be someone else's. The Act excludes industrial action "organised or engaged in by the employer", so an employer can't lock some staff out and then stand down the rest under s 524 because of its own lockout.
• You must genuinely be unable to be usefully employed. The FWO says an employer can't stand staff down just because business is quiet (FWO, stand downs).
• If your enterprise agreement or contract has its own stand-down clause for that situation, that clause applies instead of section 524, including any consultation or notice steps it requires.
• You can ask to take paid leave, such as annual leave, for the period instead. While on approved leave you are not stood down (s 525).
• Disputes about a stand-down can go to the Fair Work Commission, which can arbitrate (s 526).

Our stand-down checker walks you through whether a stand-down is lawful, and stand-down vs redundancy covers what happens if it drags on.

You must:

• Dock strike time, and get the amount right. Protected stoppage: only the actual time. Unprotected action: at least 4 hours, or the whole period if longer. Paying strike time is a contravention, not a goodwill gesture.
• Use a compliant notice if you want to cut pay for a partial work ban. No notice, no deduction. Work out the proportion using the regulation 3.21 method, put the daily dollar amount in the notice, and keep a record of how you estimated the time.
• Pay everything else normally. Hours worked outside the action, with their penalties and allowances, stay payable. Show the deduction clearly on the payslip.

You must not:

• Take adverse action because someone took part in protected action. Dismissing, demoting, cutting rosters, withdrawing approved leave or threatening any of these because of protected action risks a general protections claim (ss 340, 346–347). The FWO lists participating, or not participating, in protected industrial action or a protected action ballot as protected activity. Withholding strike pay as the Act requires is not adverse action, because action authorised by the Act is excluded (s 342(3)).
• Lock out pre-emptively. A lockout is only protected as a response to employee action, after the agreement's nominal expiry, with notice, and with the conciliation conference attended.
• Stand down staff because of your own lockout under s 524, or because work is simply slow.

You can: apply to the Commission to stop unprotected action (Form F14), apply to suspend or terminate protected action on the statutory grounds, and offer leave to non-striking staff. The Commission's Industrial Action Benchbook is the most detailed free reference on all of this.

Jetstar airports. This weekend (from Friday 2 October, over the NRL Grand Final weekend), Australian Services Union members working for Jetstar at Cairns, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne (Tullamarine and Avalon) and Adelaide airports are taking industrial action. They have stopped "a range of non-essential duties", including routine announcements and calls and disruption and cancellation management, are processing excess baggage, late and seat-change fees at $0, and are holding one-hour stoppages (Australian Aviation, 1 October 2026; Travel Weekly). It shows both pay regimes in a single dispute: the task and fee bans are the kind of action that counts as a partial work ban (s 471), while the one-hour stoppages fall under s 470. The ASU says a 2.1% offer is not enough. Jetstar says its offer also includes a further 3% in April, back pay to April 2026 and a new classification structure, and that it does not expect any flight disruption.

Universities and schools. A joint NTEU half-day stoppage at QUT, the University of Queensland and Griffith University is planned for Thursday 8 October, with a rally in Queens Gardens, Brisbane, from 12:30pm. ACT public school teachers have announced escalating Term 4 stoppages, from 1 hour up to a full day (both reported by Disputes Report, 29 September 2026). For school-sector background, see teacher strikes in Victoria and Tasmania.

FedEx. The lockout dispute described above is now before the Federal Court, according to the union.

Can my employer dock a full day for a 1-hour protected stoppage?
Not as a strike deduction. Section 470 limits it to the actual time of the action. The exception is a valid lockout (employer response action) for the rest of the day, which the employer may leave unpaid under s 416. If you get a full-day deduction with no lockout notice, query it in writing.

I'm banning one task but doing the rest of my job. Can they stop my pay?
Only if they give you a written partial work ban notice that meets the regulations. Without one, your pay can't be reduced (s 471(8)). With one, the cut is the proportion in the notice, or nil pay if the employer also refuses your partial work until you resume full duties.

Does the 4-hour rule apply to protected action?
No. The 4-hour minimum in s 474 applies only to unprotected action. Protected action costs only the actual time.

Can I use annual leave to cover strike time?
You can ask, and the FWO says an employer can't unreasonably refuse a leave request to attend a rally. But approved leave is not industrial action, so you can't be on paid leave and on strike at the same time.

I'm not in the union and didn't strike. Do I still get paid?
Yes, if there is useful work for you. If the action means there is none, you may be stood down without pay under s 524 or your agreement's stand-down clause, unless the cause is the employer's own lockout.

Can my employer sack me for striking?
Not for taking part in protected industrial action. Speak to your union, or use our general protections checker. A general protections claim involving dismissal must be lodged within 21 days. Unprotected action is different: there is no immunity, and the FWO says it can lead to discipline.

Do casuals get paid during a strike?
The same rules apply to casuals as to permanent staff. A casual who joins a stoppage isn't paid for the stoppage time, and the 4-hour rule applies to a casual who takes unprotected action.