Unfair dismissal and general protections claims hit new highs in 2025–26 as employers face longer waits and earlier intervention
Australia’s national workplace tribunal received a record 53,666 lodgements in 2025–26, and its leaders say generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools are now a major driver of the unfair dismissal and general protections claims reaching employers.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) Annual Report 2025–26, presented to Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth, shows lodgements rose 22 per cent on the 44,075 received in 2024–25. The tribunal describes this as one of the largest year-on-year increases in its history.
Unfair dismissal applications reached 18,653, or 35 per cent of all lodgements, up 40 per cent on 2020–21. General protections dismissal applications rose even faster. These are claims alleging an employee was dismissed for a prohibited reason, such as exercising a workplace right. They climbed to 9,024 in 2025–26, up 123 per cent from 4,102 in 2020–21.
Together, the two dismissal-related claim types made up more than half of the commission’s caseload.
Justice Adam Hatcher, president of the FWC, wrote in the report that dismissal applications have historically tracked the state of the labour market. That relationship has broken down in recent years, and the latest increase broadly coincided with the arrival of popular generative AI tools.
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