Employers under pressure to settle instead of fighting back
The surging number of claims lodged before the Fair Work Commission is putting employers at a costly disadvantage, according to experts.
Graeme Watson, former FWC vice president, and Kirsty Faichen, a partner at law firm Mallesons, set out the disadvantage facing employers in an opinion piece for the Australian Financial Review.
They warned that the surge in applications before the FWC is putting employers under pressure to settle workplace disputes rather than contest them on their merits.
"The surge in applications means that conciliators are increasingly discouraging discussion of the merits of dismissal due to their workload and time constraints," they wrote in the AFR article.
"The only question is how much an employer is prepared to pay to make the application go away."
The shift in handling claims comes in the wake of a record surge in applications before the FWC.
General manager Murray Furlong said in a statement last week that the FWC had received 44,039 lodgements by the end of April, close to surpassing the 44,075 total lodgements received across the entire 2024–25 financial year, so far the highest number of applications received by the FWC.
"The increased workload is placing strain on every element of the Commission's operations," Furlong said in the statement.
"However, applications continue to rise without any signs of slowing, further increasing pressure on existing and...
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