Are FIFO Travel Days Paid in Australia?

FIFO travel days are not automatically paid or unpaid across Australia. Your entitlement depends on the travel leg, the industrial instrument that covers you, your employment contract and the employer's roster and travel rules.

That means two people flying from the same airport to different mine sites can have different arrangements. One enterprise agreement may pay scheduled flight time, another may build travel into a rostered shift, and another may only provide the flight without separately paying the hours.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Use it to identify the right documents and questions, then confirm your own arrangement with your employer, union, the Fair Work Ombudsman or an employment adviser.

The short answer: check the travel leg and the document that covers it

Start with two questions:

Which part of the journey are you asking about? Home to the point of hire, point of hire to site, camp to the work area, travel between worksites, or the flight home?
What sets your pay and conditions? An enterprise agreement, modern award, employment contract or a combination of these?

The Fair Work Ombudsman says travel payments can depend on the employee's industry and job. If an enterprise agreement applies, its travel provisions will usually be the first place to check. The Fair Work Commission explains that an applicable enterprise agreement operates instead of the otherwise relevant modern award, while the National Employment Standards remain the minimum safety net.

Do not rely on a job ad saying “flights included”. A paid airfare answers who buys the ticket. It does not, by itself, answer whether your time in transit is paid as hours worked, an allowance, ordinary time, overtime or not separately paid.

Map your FIFO journey before checking pay

Write the journey as separate legs. Different rules can apply to each one.

Travel leg	What to check	Evidence to keep
Home to the nominated airport or point of hire	Whether this is treated as your ordinary journey to work; any transport or allowance clause	Offer, contract, point-of-hire clause, receipts
Point of hire to site	Whether scheduled travel time is paid, included in a rostered shift or only the fare is provided	Itinerary, roster, agreement, payslip
Airport to camp or site	When paid time starts and ends; whether a transfer is included in travel time	Bus manifest, mobilisation instructions, agreement
Camp to pre-start or the work area	Whether the bus trip sits inside the paid shift or outside it	Shift times, timesheet, site procedure, agreement
Travel between work locations during duties	Whether it is recorded as ordinary time or overtime	Supervisor instruction, timesheet, vehicle log
Return journey after the final shift	Whether the last shift is shortened, travel is paid separately or the roster absorbs it	Roster calendar, itinerary, payslip
Delay, cancellation or missed flight	Whether the instrument protects pay for employer/airline delays and what happens when the employee misses transport	Delay notice, rebooking record, messages, policy

This map prevents a common misunderstanding: “travel day” can describe several hours with different pay treatments.

Which document should you read first?

1. Enterprise agreement

Many FIFO operations have enterprise agreements covering a particular employer, project, site or group of employees. Search the Fair Work Commission's enterprise agreement database using the legal employer name shown on your payslip, not only the mine or client name.

Open the agreement and search for terms such as:

FIFO, fly in fly out or point of hire
travel time or travelling time
mobilisation and demobilisation
rostered day off or RDO
flights, delays and missed flights
ordinary hours, overtime and allowances
camp, crib, transport or bus.

Check the coverage clause as well as the travel clause. Finding an agreement with a familiar company name does not prove it covers your role, location or employing entity.

2. Modern award

If no enterprise agreement applies, a modern award may set minimum conditions. Coverage depends on the industry, employer and classification—not simply on being a FIFO worker.

For example, the current Mining Industry Award 2020 contains some travel-related payments for particular circumstances, but that does not create one general travel-day rule for every mining employee. Other workers may be covered by a different award, including workers employed by contractors operating at the same site.

Use the Fair Work Ombudsman's award tools or ask for help if coverage is unclear. Do not select an award only because its title sounds close to the worksite.

3. Employment contract and workplace policies

Read the contract for your salary or hourly rate, ordinary hours, roster, point of hire, travel, allowances and any clause referring to an award or agreement. Then check incorporated travel and roster policies.

A contract or policy can provide useful detail, but it cannot lawfully undercut minimum entitlements that apply under the National Employment Standards, an award or an enterprise agreement. If the documents conflict, get advice rather than choosing the clause that appears most convenient.

Six common FIFO pay arrangements

There is no standard arrangement, but these patterns help you recognise what the paperwork is doing.

The employer provides the flight but not separate travel-time pay

The company books and pays for the charter or commercial flight. Your paid shift starts at a specified time on site. The airfare is a benefit, but the transit hours are not shown as a separate payment.

Travel is inside the rostered shift

The first or last shift may include travel. You might work fewer site hours that day while receiving the normal rostered payment. Check exactly when the paid period starts and finishes.

Scheduled flight time is paid

An agreement may define travel time from scheduled departure to scheduled arrival and state the applicable rate. It may also explain whether those hours count towards ordinary hours or overtime.

A fixed travel allowance is paid

Instead of recording every hour, the instrument may provide a set amount or allowance for an eligible journey. Confirm whether the allowance covers time, expenses or both; those are different things.

Travel on an RDO attracts pay or substitute time off

Some enterprise agreements contain special rules when an employee must travel on a rostered day off. The result may be ordinary pay, a penalty, substitute time off or another arrangement.

Annual salary absorbs the roster pattern

A permanent employee may receive a consistent fortnightly salary across on-swing and off-swing periods. That does not show, by itself, whether travel time has been separately paid. Check the salary, roster, annualised wage or set-off wording and compare it with the minimum entitlements that apply.

These are examples, not default rules. A casual employee is not necessarily unpaid for every journey, and a salaried employee is not necessarily receiving an extra travel payment.

What happens when a FIFO flight is delayed or cancelled?

Check the agreement and travel policy before a disruption happens. Current enterprise agreements show how different the wording can be.

One agreement may define paid travel using scheduled flight times and allow a worker to claim extra time caused by delays beyond their control, subject to evidence. Another may say FIFO employees are not penalised for a delayed or cancelled service when they are ready to travel and take the next available flight, while treating an employee-caused missed flight differently.

These examples demonstrate variation; they do not apply unless the agreement covers you.

If a service is disrupted:

notify the contact named in your travel instructions
keep the airline or charter delay notice
save rebooking details and timestamps
record when you arrived at the airport and when travel finished
keep written instructions about the next flight or accommodation
check the relevant timesheet or allowance entry on your next payslip.

Do not assume that airline compensation, an employer-paid hotel and wages for the missed shift are the same entitlement. They address different issues.

Eight questions to ask before accepting a FIFO role

Ask the recruiter or employer to answer these in writing:

What is the official point of hire?
Who pays for travel from my home to that point?
Is travel from the point of hire to site paid as time, an allowance, or only as a provided fare?
When does paid time start and finish on fly-in and fly-out days?
Are airport transfers and camp-to-site bus trips inside the paid shift?
What happens to pay if a company-arranged flight is delayed or cancelled?
What happens if travel falls on an RDO or extends the day beyond rostered hours?
Which enterprise agreement or award covers the role, and where can I read it?

Then compare the answer with the roster calendar. An advertised 8/6 roster can feel different if the first and last “days” include long unpaid travel. For the lifestyle side of that calculation, read FIFO rosters explained.

How to check whether your payslip is right

Use one representative swing and reconcile it line by line:

Mark scheduled shifts, actual work and each travel leg on a calendar.
Add the times you were directed to report and released from duties.
Identify the agreement, award or contract clause for each payment.
Compare ordinary hours, overtime, travel time and allowances with the payslip.
Note any difference and the exact amount or hours you cannot explain.

Keep the original roster, later roster changes, timesheets, itineraries, payslips and messages. A clean timeline is more useful than saying a whole travel day “looks wrong”.

If your concern is about claiming travel costs at tax time, that is a separate question. See the FIFO tax deductions guide and avoid treating an unpaid journey as automatically tax-deductible.

What to do if travel pay appears to be missing

Start with a written payroll query. State the date, journey, reporting time, scheduled and actual travel time, payslip line and the clause you think applies. Ask for the calculation and the instrument the employer relied on.

If that does not resolve it:

use the workplace problem steps on the Fair Work Ombudsman travel-entitlements page
contact your union if you are a member
ask the Fair Work Ombudsman about award or agreement coverage
obtain independent employment advice for a significant or disputed underpayment.

Avoid posting confidential rosters, payslips or personal details in public groups. A forum can show that other workers have the same question, but it cannot determine which legal instrument covers you.

The practical takeaway

FIFO travel days can be paid, partly paid, absorbed into a rostered shift, covered by an allowance or not separately paid. The result is not determined by the word “FIFO”. It comes from the journey, the applicable enterprise agreement or award, and the contract and policies that lawfully operate with them.

Before comparing offers, get the point of hire, roster calendar and travel-pay rule in writing. Then compare the whole package—not just the airfare or headline salary. The FIFO salary guide explains other package components, and you can browse current FIFO jobs to see how employers describe rosters and travel arrangements.