A First Look at Incidence and Outcomes of Unfair Dismissal Claims under Fair Work, WorkChoices and the Workplace Relations Act

Debate over regulation of dismissals has been intense in recent years, and renewed in the lead-up to the 2012 review of the operation of the Fair Work Act. This paper reviews the economically relevant aspects of the legislative changes from the Workplace Relations Act which operated from 1993-2006, WorkChoices from 2006-2009 and the Fair Work Act from 2009 and compares the lodgment patterns and outcomes based on the data provided by Fair Work Australia on the operation of the unfair dismissal system, as required under the Fair Work Act. Our findings reinforce earlier work that showed costs imposed on business and employment are modest, but further work is required on productivity effects of dismissal regulation.