Australian employment laws are quite tough, which means that employees are well protected against unfair dismissal. Basically, the law requires that an employer complies with the terms of your contract when terminating your employment. If a contract hasn’t been signed, there are a few umbrella rules that have to be followed.
On top of this, it’s illegal to fire someone based on their gender, race, ethnicity or any other discriminatory factor. Employers who fire someone in a way that could be considered discrimination could be subject to major legal action.
In the rest of this article, we’ve looked at some of the most popular forms of unfair dismissal and what you should do if your employment has been terminated illegally.
What Is Unfair Dismissal?
To put it simply, unfair dismissal refers to any situation when an employee feels that they’ve been unfairly released from employment or forced to resign due to their employers actions. All unfair dismissal cases are heard by the Fair Work Commission in Australia. Some of the most common example include:
- When you’ve been fired abruptly without serious consideration of the consequences. In recent years, a lot of unfair dismissal cases are centered on an employee’s social media conduct.
- If you’ve been fired due to poor performance or issues with your work that you weren’t aware of. A company needs to ensure you’re aware of problems and give you the opportunity to fix them before dismissing you.
- Dismissal due to racial or religious prejudices, although these claims often fall under discrimination laws.