On 15 October 2012, the Minster for Employment and Workplace Relations announced the first tranche Government response to the Review of the Fair Work Act. The first tranche covers matters where there is broad support among stakeholders. Of the proposals, only two were identified as having a significant regulatory impact on employers and/or employees. These recommendations were to:
- extend the time limit for lodging unfair dismissal applications to 21 days; and
- reduce the time limit for lodging a general protections claim involving a dismissal to 21 days.
These two changes are intended to address the problem of interaction between the provisions sometimes leading to unintended outcomes. One unintended outcome identified was the potential for out of time unfair dismissal claims to instead be lodged as general protections claims. The Government will continue to consult with stakeholders on the remaining recommendations of the Fair Work Act Review. A Regulation Impact Statement was prepared by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation. While the RIS was provided to the OBPR for publication on this website, it was not included in the explanatory memorandum, as required under the best practice regulation requirements.
501 KB]
525 KB]