27 July 2026
Fair Work claims have reached record highs. By the end of April 2026, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) had received 44,039 lodgements, almost surpassing the 44,075 total lodgements received throughout the entire 2024-2025 financial year.
Whether it’s a general protections claim or an unfair dismissal application, more and more businesses are finding themselves defending decisions they’ve made.
During Episode 8 of TALKING PEOPLE!, Jenna Paulin, Paul Jansz and employment lawyer Daniela Sassano explored what’s driving this trend, where employers are getting caught out, and what businesses can do to reduce their legal exposure.
It’s not all bad news. Many of these claims are preventable, as long as these decisions are managed well. Read on to find out how to reduce your risk in this new employment landscape.
Want to watch the full episode of TALKING PEOPLE! instead? Access it now.
Let’s address the elephant in the room first. Why are claims increasing now?
One of the key takeaways from the discussion was that employers are operating in a very different employment landscape than they were even from a couple of years ago.
As the FWC is experiencing an increase in applications, it also results in more compressed processes and heavier workloads. As Daniela explained during the webinar, the Commission has had to adapt their approach to manage the growing volume of applications they have been receiving.
Employees are also finding it easier to put together and lodge claims thanks to artificial intelligence and AI tools.
For businesses, it means that employment decisions are bring scrutinised more closely than ever.
An area that often causes confusion is the difference between an unfair dismissal claim and a general protections one.
While both kinds of claims can come as a result of workplace disputes, they operate differently from each other.
An unfair dismissal claim focuses on whether a termination was harsh, unjust, or unreasonable.
When reviewing such claims, the FWC considers questions like:
For most employees, minimum employment periods apply before they can lodge an unfair dismissal claim.
General protections claims have a broader scope than unfair dismissal ones.
A general protections claim doesn’t focus only on dismissal, but looks at whether adverse action was taken because an employee exercised a workplace right or possessed a protected attribute.
General protections claims can arise during employment, not just after termination.
As discussed during the webinar, these matters can quickly become more complex than an unfair dismissal claim, particularly if they proceed beyond the Fair Work Commission and into the Federal Courts.
During the episode, Jenna, Paul, and Daniela reinforced that the real issue isn’t usually the termination.
Employers rarely find themselves in difficult situations simply because they terminated someone’s employment. They get into difficulty because of everything that happened before the decision took place.
The questions that lawyers, regulators, tribunals and courts ask are often about the steps that led to the termination decision.
Did the employer:
A common theme we see is that where the above elements are missing, even a decision that looks reasonable on the surface can become significantly more difficult to defend.
Many employers unintentionally increase their legal risk by:
As Jenna noted during the webinar, even where misconduct appears obvious, employers should always avoid rushing to a decision. Best practice is always to follow the correct processes and document everything.
Documentation is one of the strongest protections available to employers. We say it a lot: good documentation is evidence that process was followed and that complaints were heard and actioned on.
Without the evidence provided by documentation (whether they’re file notes, improvement plans, or the like), employers find it hard to demonstrate that procedural fairness was followed.
As both Jenna and Daniela emphasised, workplace decisions should be capable of standing up to independent scrutiny, and not simply because the employer believes they acted fairly, but because the process clearly shows they did.
Having workplace policies isn’t enough. Employers need to make sure that those policies reflect how the business actually operates.
One issue discussed during the webinar was businesses relying on outdated documentation or generic policies that no longer align with current legislation or internal practices.
You might have well-written policies for dealing with workplace situations. But if managers consistently handle situations differently from what’s written in company policies, those documents may offer little protection when disputes arise.
For this reason, we always encourage businesses to review their employment contracts, workplace policies, and HR processes regularly. This practice helps ensure that businesses’s policies and procedures are still aligned with what they do on the daily, as well as with the ever-changing employment laws.
Many employers only seek HR or legal advice once a Fair Work claim has already been lodged. However, seeking advice earlier (like during performance management and disciplinary pocesses, or workplace investigations), can help employers mitigate the risk early on.
Preventative HR support is a proactive step that can be significantly less costly than addressing a claim and defending against it.
No employer can completely eliminate workplace risk. Employees will resign, disputes in the workplace will arise, and difficult conversations and inevitably decisions will be unavoidable.
However, what businesses and their leaders can control is how they respond.
Clear documentation, consistent management practices, and up-to-date and compliant employment documentation are our best practice recommendations to employers to reduce their legal exposure.
Employers who focus on process and best practice, and not outcomes, place themselves in a much stronger position should their decisions ever be challenged.
If you need help with HR and people processes at your business, book a discovery call with the Now Actually team now.
