Your rights if you are sacked in Australia

Ask for the dismissal in writing, including the reason and the effective date. If it was verbal, send an email confirming your understanding of what was said and when — this creates a contemporaneous record.

Write down what happened while it is fresh: who said what, who was present, dates of any prior warnings or meetings, and whether you were told the reason and given a chance to respond. These details decide unfair dismissal cases.

Gather documents before your access is cut off: your contract, payslips, position description, performance reviews, warnings, relevant emails and rosters. Employees routinely lose access to work email within hours.

Call the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94 for free advice on entitlements, and check the Fair Work Commission's eligibility guidance on which claim applies to you.

Unfair dismissal is available if you were dismissed and the dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable. You must have completed the minimum employment period — six months, or twelve months in a small business with fewer than 15 employees — and be covered by an award or agreement, or earn below the high income threshold.

The Commission looks at whether there was a valid reason relating to capacity or conduct, whether you were notified of it, whether you were given an opportunity to respond, whether you were allowed a support person, and whether any performance issues had been raised before. Process failures alone can make an otherwise justified dismissal unfair.

General protections claims are different and often stronger. They apply where you were dismissed for a prohibited reason — exercising a workplace right such as asking about pay or making a complaint, temporary absence due to illness, union membership, or a protected attribute such as race, sex, age, disability, pregnancy or family responsibilities. There is no minimum employment period, compensation is not capped, and the burden of proof reverses: once you show the adverse action and the protected reason, the employer must prove the reason was not why they acted.

Genuine redundancy is a defence to unfair dismissal, but only if the job genuinely no longer needs to be done by anyone, consultation obligations under the award or agreement were met, and redeployment within the business or an associated entity was reasonably considered. Redundancies that fail any of these tests are not genuine.

Notice, or payment in lieu of it. The National Employment Standards set minimum notice from one week for under a year of service to four weeks for more than five years, with an extra week if you are over 45 and have at least two years' service. Your contract or award may provide more.

Accrued but untaken annual leave, paid out in full. Long service leave may also be payable depending on your state and length of service — it is a state entitlement and the thresholds differ.

Redundancy pay if the role was made redundant, scaled by length of service from four weeks at one year to sixteen weeks at nine to ten years. Small businesses with fewer than 15 employees are generally exempt, as are casuals and employees with less than a year's service.

Final pay is generally due on the last day or in the next regular pay cycle. Superannuation is payable on the ordinary time earnings component, though generally not on redundancy pay itself.

Personal or carer's leave is not paid out on termination. That is not a mistake; it is how the National Employment Standards work.

You lodge online with the Fair Work Commission. The fee is modest and can be waived on financial hardship grounds. Your employer files a response.

The Commission then holds a conciliation conference — usually by telephone, usually within a few weeks, and conducted by an independent conciliator rather than a decision-maker. The great majority of matters settle here, most commonly for a payment of several weeks' pay and an agreed statement of service.

If it does not settle, the matter goes to a formal hearing or determinative conference before a Commission member. Lawyers require permission to appear, which levels the field somewhat.

Remedies for unfair dismissal are reinstatement first in principle, and compensation capped at six months' pay in practice. Compensation does not include a component for hurt or humiliation in unfair dismissal matters — general protections claims are different in this respect.

Free legal help is available. Several community legal centres run employment law services, and the Commission itself runs a free workplace advice service offering limited assistance to eligible unrepresented parties.