Your job has ended or is under threat, your pay is wrong, or something happened at work that you think was unlawful.
The forum, the 21-day rule, the difference between the two main dismissal claims, and the guides that matter most when the other side is your former employer.
An employment solicitor at a community legal centre.
What is different about a work matter
- Twenty-one days. An unfair dismissal application, and a general protections application involving dismissal, must generally be lodged with the Fair Work Commission within 21 days after the dismissal took effect. Extensions are rare. This is the single most important fact on this page.
- Two different claims look similar. Unfair dismissal asks whether the dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable, and has eligibility conditions such as minimum service and a high-income threshold that changes every July (award or agreement coverage can bring you in above it). A forced resignation can count as a dismissal. General protections asks whether you were dismissed or treated adversely because you exercised a workplace right or for a prohibited reason, and can go to court. Choosing wrongly is hard to undo; the Commission's free advice service exists for this decision.
- Conciliation comes first. Most matters go to a conciliation by phone within weeks, and most settle there. The mediation guide applies directly, three numbers and all.
- The employer holds the documents. Your own copies of contracts, payslips, emails and policies, saved before access is cut off, are worth more than anything you can ask for later.
- Emotional temperature is high and the record matters. Employers read your emails for tone. The clear legal letter discipline applies to every message from the first warning onward.
Forum, time limits, first steps
The Fair Work Commission for dismissal claims, bullying and some disputes; the Fair Work Ombudsman and a small claims procedure in court for underpayment; state or federal anti-discrimination bodies for discrimination; state tribunals for some public-sector and small-business matters. Federal law for most employees, so the NSW rules pages here do not apply. State public-sector employees are often outside the federal system and use their state's industrial commission instead.
21 days from dismissal for unfair dismissal and general protections dismissal claims. Underpayment claims generally six years. Discrimination complaints have their own limits, set by each scheme and often measured in months. Find yours the day something happens.
Keep copies of the material you are entitled to have: your contract, payslips, rosters, the policy you are said to have breached, the warning, the termination letter, and emails addressed to you. Do not take confidential company material you are not entitled to keep; it can become a separate problem. Write a dated chronology while it is fresh. Do not sign a deed of release or a "mutual separation" on the day; take it away and get advice.
The Commission's Workplace Advice Service gives eligible people a free appointment with a lawyer on dismissal and general protections questions. Use it before you choose which claim to file, but requesting an appointment is not filing: if the 21st day is approaching and the appointment has not happened, lodge the application anyway.
The Fair Work Ombudsman can investigate, and a simplified small claims procedure lets you recover entitlements in court without the usual formality. Payslips and hours records matter greatly in these, alongside evidence of the entitlement that applied, the work done and what was paid.
If you are still employed
Warnings, performance plans and investigations are where most dismissals begin. Respond in writing, calmly, to every one: acknowledge, ask for specifics, give your account with dates and documents, and keep a copy of your own correspondence. The helpful sentences guide and the limited consent rule matter here, because a signature on a performance plan can be read as agreement with its contents. Do not resign in the heat of a meeting; a resignation can end claims that a dismissal would have kept open.
Which guides apply
- The first 48 hoursFor the termination letter, the warning, or the investigation notice.
- Orders, directions and deadlinesTwenty-one days is a rule deadline. Treat it as one.
- Build a living chronologyEvery workplace claim turns on sequence: what was said, when, and what followed.
- Clean, confidential or compelled?Your employer's documents come with confidentiality; know which you can use.
- Evidence or submissions?Commission forms ask for both, in different boxes.
- Mediation without dependenceConciliation is a phone mediation. Decide your numbers first.
- Itemise an overwhelming scheduleA long list of alleged performance failures, line by line.
Official resources
- Fair Work Commission: Workplace Advice Service and the Commission's benchbooks, which explain the legal tests in plain terms
- Fair Work Ombudsman: small claims for entitlements
- Australian Human Rights Commission complaints for discrimination, and your state's anti-discrimination body
- Community legal centres with employment practices, through the resources page