As we rapidly approach the end of another calendar year, it’s normal to both lament the speed at which it passed, and to reflect on what the year delivered.  If your own reflections include a vibe that relationships felt a little more confrontational this year, particularly at the point of break-up, then you’re in good company.

Earlier this month (November 2025), the President of the Fair Work Commission released a Statement announcing reforms to the Commission’s processes for managing general protections dismissal applications. Why? Put simply, with limited resources the Commission needed to change its systems to manage what has become an unsustainable workload.

To reassure you that you’re not alone in what you’re feeling:

• Total lodgements in the Commission for the 2024-2025 year were up 24% against the 5‑year average.
• In 2024-2025, general protection dismissal applications were up 13% against 2023-2024, and 27% against the 5‑year average.
• Lodgements in Q1 of 2025-206 increased 45% against the 3‑year average.
• General protection dismissal applications in Q1 of 2025-2026 increased 57% against the 3‑year average.

As good people managers, when we feel the winds changing there’s a natural propensity to become introspective and to begin asking what’s changed, what do we need to do to address it, and where are the opportunities for better outcomes.  At the same time, there’s a reality that pendulum’s swing and there’s a reason why we review data across long-term averages.

There’s likely to be a range of reasons for the increases – increased “rights” education and awareness, cost of living pressures amplifying the impact of dismissals, and the increased focus and discourse around psychosocial risk and health, to name just three.  But while the raw numbers might cause alarm for some (and might align with how things ‘feel’), when we look at actual application outcomes, we should feel reassured that while continuous improvement remains the order of the day, there’s no reason to starting to do things dramatically different.

Due to the life-cycle of general protection dismissal applications continuing across multiple bodies (i.e. starting in the Fair Work Commission and then continuing through to either the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia or Federal Court), it’s more difficult to paint a reliable picture of outcomes, but if we use unfair dismissal applications as an analogue, we see that while the total number of Q3 (Jan-Mar) applications in 2025 increased to 3885 from 2723 in the same quarter in 2021 (an increase of around 42%):

• Around 1% of applications in 2025 resulted in a finding of unfairness, compared to around 2% of applications in 2021.
• The percentage of applications resolving without a decision increased to around 93% in 2025 from around 77% in 2021 (which was an uncharacteristically low percentage).
• Looking at the five-year movements, the percentage of applications resulting in a finding of unfairness shows: 2021 – 2%; 2022 – 0.5%; 2023 – 0.7%; 2024 – 1.5%; 2025 – 1%.
• Looking at the five-year movements, the percentage of applications resolving without a decision shows: 2021- 77%; 2022 – 81%; 2023 – 91%; 2024 – 91%; 2025 – 93%.

So, what are the take-aways?  How we ‘feel’ and what we’re told by one set of numbers is important, but it’s often not the complete picture.  Maintaining the longer-term focus on adjusting to trends will typically be more productive than over-reacting to individual events.  But at the end of the day, we have a time‑proven toolkit for dealing with all people management issues – Focus on what we need to achieve and design our strategies using the legal parameters in which we’re required to operate.  At the same time, always consider and proactively manage how our outcomes will resonate with those who are directly impacted, and those who might be watching on.  If we deliver, we can at least face the challenges knowing that it’s less likely to be us, and more likely to be them.