What is unfair dismissal?
Pursuant to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and various State based legislation, if you have been terminated from your employment, you may be eligible to make a claim for compensation or reinstatement through an Unfair Dismissal Application.
The Act sets out the criteria for who can make an Unfair Dismissal Claim and the factors that are considered in deciding when a dismissal is considered to be “harsh, unjust and unreasonable”
Successful claim situations
There are various situations where a claim may be successful such as:
- Being dismissed on the grounds of false or incorrect allegations
- Alleged poor performance where you have not been given clear warnings or opportunities to improve your performance
- Being dismissed on the grounds of injury and illness, but you were still recovering from same and not given opportunity to recover
- Employer forcing you to resign through the employer’s conduct
- Employer terminates you on the grounds of redundancy, but employs another person on the same position
- Being dismissed without given a clear reason or clear chance to respond to the reasons for dismissal
Employees are not able to make a claim for unfair dismissal if they were only employed for only six months or on probation or employed as a casual employee, if you are a contractor or labour hire employee and various other factors.