Fair Work Commission launches new unfair dismissal initiative

Fair Work Commission President, Justice Iain Ross, has launched the pilot of a client feedback form for parties involved in unfair dismissal conciliations.

Unfair dismissals are the most common application lodged with the Commission, and the new form, will gather valuable feedback from parties involved in the telephone conciliation process.  This information will assist the Commission to further improve its services and materials.

Justice Ross said the more informal telephone conciliation process introduced by the Commission in 2009 had been extremely successful in resolving unfair dismissal matters and avoiding the need for a more formal hearing before a Member.

“Conciliation is an extremely important part of our unfair dismissal dispute resolution process, particularly for unrepresented parties,” Justice Ross said.  “Last financial year 81% of unfair dismissal applications were settled during the conciliation process.”

“The feedback we gather from this new initiative will help us to make the conciliation process even more accessible for all parties and to ensure that it remains a valuable and accessible means of resolving unfair dismissal disputes.”

Justice Ross said the key benefits of the conciliation process was its more informal nature, the speed with which a resolution could be reached and its accessibility to unrepresented employees and employers.

The client feedback form is one of a number of initiatives that the Commission has introduced to support parties involved in unfair dismissal matters.

In the past 12 months a series of changes have been introduced by the Termination of Employment Panel Head, Commissioner Jones, including:

• new information materials to assist parties to understand the unfair dismissal process
• a pilot three-day ‘cooling off’ period for settlements reached during conciliation
• improved flexibility when scheduling matters to suit the needs of parties
• an unfair dismissal user group chaired by the Panel Head
• a 30% reduction in the time between an application being lodged and the conciliation.

Further initiatives are presently in the planning stage, including:

• publishing a bench book written in plain English to support parties to understand the unfair dismissal laws and processes
• engaging with providers of pro bono legal services to extend the availability of legal advice to self-represented parties.

Justice Ross said the feedback form pilot would assist the Commission to determine the success of these initiatives and to develop further information materials and services in future.  The pilot will be evaluated after it has operated for six months.

Source: Accommodation Association of Australia, 19 February 2013