Pause Before You Dismiss – Call MTA NSW First

26 Nov 2025

The Fair Work Commission has just confirmed what many of us have felt on the ground: dismissal disputes are exploding, and general protections matters are leading the charge.

In its 2024–25 Annual Report, the Commission reports 44,075 lodgements in a single year – a jump of 24% above the five-year average. Of these, 6,209 were general protections dismissal applications, up 13% on the previous year and 27% above the five-year average.

That growth hasn’t levelled off. In the first quarter of the new financial year (1 July–30 September 2025), the Commission received 13,671 lodgements – 45% above the three-year Q1 average. Of those, 2,120 were general protections dismissal applications, a 57% spike on the Q1 average. If this trend continues, the Commission is staring down the barrel of more than 50,000 total lodgements and over 8,000 general protections dismissal applications in 2025–26 alone.

This isn’t background noise. It’s the system your business will be dealing with if a decision to discipline or terminate an employee goes wrong.

What this means for our industry

We are seeing the same pattern at MTA NSW.

In 2024, we were involved in fewer than ten Fair Work matters for members. So far this year, we are just under 40 – and there are more in the pipeline. That’s a four-fold jump in real cases, affecting real automotive businesses, in less than two years.

Across those matters, the potential exposure in compensation and penalties for our members this calendar year is already approaching the $1 million mark. Because we have been able to step in, test the evidence and run strong defences, the actual amounts paid have been brought down to well under 5% of that exposure. The risk is real – but early, disciplined advice makes a very visible difference to the final number.

A few uncomfortable realities sit behind these numbers:

General protections are being used as a “back door” unfair dismissal claim. The President notes that more than half of general protections dismissal applicants do not even meet the qualifying period for unfair dismissal. In other words, claims are being run under general protections because the usual unfair dismissal pathway isn’t available.
Lawyers and “paid agents” are driving a lot of this work. Around 46% of applicants are represented by a lawyer or paid agent, and a significant proportion of those come from a small group of frequent operators.
Most settlements are not huge – but the cost to the business is. Of the general protections dismissal matters that settled with money paid, one-third resolved for under $4,000 and 61% under $10,000, with the median between $4,000 and $5,999.

Those settlement figures can lull people into thinking, “It’s just the cost of doing business.” That’s naïve. By the time you get to that point, you’ve already spent substantial time on witness statements, conferences, legal input, distractions in the workplace and the stress that comes with having your management decisions tested in a tribunal.

And general protections claim carry risks that go well beyond a “typical” unfair dismissal – including reverse onus of proof, uncapped compensation and potential civil penalties.

The pattern we keep seeing

Across our recent matters, the story is depressingly familiar:

A manager makes a quick decision to discipline or terminate because they’re frustrated, fed up or under pressure.
The employee has recently raised a complaint, a safety issue, a pay query, or taken personal leave.
The dismissal or disciplinary action is poorly documented, rushed, and framed around “attitude” or “not a good fit”.
Only after the dismissal do we get the call to “help fix it”. By then, key choices are locked in and the risk profile is already high.

You cannot “un-dismiss” an employee in the eyes of the Commission. Once the termination has occurred, we are managing damage, not preventing it.

One simple discipline: Call before you act

The most effective risk control we have is also the simplest:

PAUSE BEFORE YOU DISMISS - CALL MTA FIRST.

Before you:

issue a final warning,
stand someone down, or
terminate employment (especially in probation or following a complaint, safety concern or leave issue),

pick up the phone and speak to the MTA Employment Relations team.

That one step allows us to:

Check whether general protections risks are present (recent complaints, use of workplace rights, union issues, discrimination factors).
Test whether the proposed reason stacks up against the evidence you actually have – not just what people “feel”.
Help you structure a lawful process (meetings, letters, timeframes) that the Commission is more likely to view as fair.
Suggest alternatives – performance management, warning, counselling, medical capability process – where an immediate termination is likely to create more problems than it solves.

Often a 10-minute call at the beginning avoids a 10-month saga at the end.

A changing Commission - and a tougher environment

The President has been blunt: the current rate of growth in dismissal claims is unsustainable and is already affecting the Commission’s ability to deal with other important work.

In response, the Commission is tightening its case management processes in general protections matters – including more rigorous scrutiny of out-of-time applications and representation, and a stronger focus on early, settlement-driven conferences.

presidents-statement-gp-changes…

That means:

more structured, faster processes once a claim is lodged;
less room to “wing it” in conferences; and
even more need to have your decision-making, documentation and process in order before you press the trigger.

The message for members

The trend is clear: more claims, more aggressive use of general protections, more paid agents, and more pressure on the system. Our own caseload confirms that the automotive industry is very much in the firing line.

You cannot control whether an employee decides to lodge a claim. But you can control how disciplined your decision-making is before you discipline or dismiss.

For members, the simplest rule of thumb is: