First, the deadlines — because some are brutally short
Before anything else, understand this: some workplace claims have very short deadlines, and missing them can end your rights entirely. The most important is the 21-day rule. If you have been dismissed and want to challenge it as an unfair dismissal, or bring a general protections claim involving dismissal, you have just 21 calendar days from when the dismissal takes effect to lodge with the Fair Work Commission. That is three weeks, weekends included, and extensions are only granted in exceptional circumstances. If you have recently lost your job and something feels wrong, treat it as urgent and read our unfair dismissal 21-day rule guide first.
Not every workplace matter has such a tight limit — an ongoing pay dispute or a bullying situation works differently — but because you may not know at first which category yours falls into, the safe move is always to get advice early.
Your main options — a plain-English map
- Unfair dismissal. The question is whether your dismissal was "harsh, unjust or unreasonable." It looks at both the reason for the dismissal and the fairness of the process. Tight 21-day deadline; eligibility rules apply.
- Redundancy disputes. The question is whether your redundancy was genuine — because a genuine redundancy is a defence to an unfair dismissal claim. If the role still exists, consultation was skipped, or redeployment was reasonable and not offered, it may not be genuine.
- General protections and discrimination. The question is whether you suffered "adverse action" because you have or exercised a workplace right, or because of a protected attribute like age, sex, race, disability, pregnancy or carer's responsibilities. These claims can be powerful and carry their own deadlines.
- Bullying and harassment. Repeated unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to health and safety. Specific avenues apply, including applying to the Fair Work Commission for an order to stop bullying — aimed at stopping ongoing behaviour rather than awarding compensation.
- Partnership and executive exits. High-stakes separations at the top of a business — partners falling out, directors leaving under strain, senior executives negotiating a dignified departure. These blend employment, commercial and sometimes corporate issues.
- Workplace investigations and grievances. Knowing when a matter needs a formal investigation, when it is better mediated, and how to handle a grievance without inflaming it.
How the Fair Work system actually works
The Fair Work Commission is Australia's national workplace tribunal — and it is worth understanding its basic instinct: it is built to encourage resolution, not to run trials. For most claim types, the Commission's first move is to offer conciliation — an informal, confidential, without-prejudice discussion led by an impartial staff member, designed to help the two sides reach their own agreement. The large majority of matters settle at this stage. Only the minority that don't go on to a Commission Member for a binding decision.
Alongside the Commission sit two other useful government bodies. The Fair Work Ombudsman is the go-to source for information about workplace rights, pay and entitlements. Safe Work Australia sets the national framework for work health and safety, including the psychosocial hazards — like role conflict and workplace bullying — that employers now have a positive duty to manage.
Where private mediation fits alongside all of this
Private mediation is not an alternative that competes with the Fair Work system — it works with it. Mediation can be used in three ways: before you lodge, to try to resolve the matter directly and quickly, sometimes avoiding a formal claim altogether; alongside a lodged claim, with one of our own mediators handling your specific dispute, more time than a short conciliation call allows, and a process tailored to the matter; or in situations the Commission does not cover, such as many partnership disputes or internal grievances.
The advantages are consistent across all workplace disputes: faster (usually a single session), private (no public record), cheaper than a contested hearing, and it keeps the outcome in your hands. It also tends to preserve relationships — which matters enormously when the people involved have to keep working together, or when a business cannot afford a public fight.
Mediation is not right for every situation, and we are honest about that. Where there is violence, serious harassment, a severe power imbalance, or a need to establish serious facts first, another step may need to come first. Our guide on whether mediation is right for your workplace dispute walks through that honestly.
What to expect if you come to us
You start with a fixed-fee consultation — a proper conversation, not a sales pitch — where we listen to your situation, tell you honestly which type of claim or process fits, flag any deadlines that are running, and set out your realistic options. There are no surprises on cost, because the fee is agreed up front.
If mediation is the right path, one of our own mediators — experienced in employment law and workplace dynamics — works with you directly. The mediator speaks with each side privately first, to understand the issues and check for any safety or power-imbalance concerns. The session can run with everyone together or in a shuttle format, in person or online. In most matters, agreement is reached in that session, and we guide you on turning it into a binding, enforceable deed of settlement. If mediation is not the right path, we will tell you that too, and point you toward the process that is.
Preventing disputes before they start
Not every workplace problem is a legal dispute yet — and the cheapest dispute is the one that never happens. A great deal of workplace conflict traces back to team dynamics that were never properly understood: unclear roles, overlapping responsibilities, and behaviour that gets read as personal when it is really structural. Belbin Team Roles training helps organisations build balanced teams and give people a shared, non-personal language for difference — heading off conflict before it ever becomes a grievance or a claim.