Fair Work Commission Annual Report 2017-2018

The Fair Work Commission Annual Report provides information on the Commission’s achievements and performance. At 213 pages, this year’s report is again a marathon read (but down from last year’s 222 pages so things are slowly heading in the right direction) and key information is readily accessible in tabled summaries.

Unfair dismissal continues to be a hot topic for the Commission.  Over the 2017–18 period:

• 13,595 unfair dismissal applications were lodged
• 99 per cent of applications (13,415) were finalised, with 50 per cent finalised within 31 days and 90 per cent within 90 days
• The median number of days to a staff conciliation was 27 days from lodgement, well within the target of 34 days
• 79 per cent of applications conciliated by staff (8,285) were resolved by the parties
• 6 per cent of applications (779) were resolved by the Tribunal, through a final decision or order.

The Fair Work Ombudsman website received 367,348 page views regarding unfair dismissal; 123,773 page views or downloads of the unfair dismissal benchbook; 23,793 views of the unfair dismissal virtual tour; and 79,168 views of the online eligibility quiz for unfair dismissal applications.

Staff answered 19,376 telephone enquiries concerning unfair dismissal.

You can access the Fair Work Commission Annual Report here.

While the subject of unfair dismissal and the process around responding to a claim from an ex-employee continues to be a source of confusion, lost time and unnecessary expense for most business owners and managers, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Bare Bones Consulting can show you what you need to know about unfair dismissal in one simple session and how you can protect yourself from becoming one of the compensation statistics. When it happens to you, it’s generally too late. Your smart option? Give Bare Bones Consulting a call or touch base through our “Contact Us” page…we got your back.