The relationship between employers and employees has become increasingly complex in the modern workplace. One trend that’s impossible to ignore is the steady climb in unfair dismissal claims being filed across various industries.
What’s driving this surge? The answer isn’t simple, but understanding it matters for both employers trying to protect their businesses and employees seeking to understand their rights. Here’s a breakdown of all contributing reasons and factors.
Employees Are More Aware of Their Legal Rights Than Ever Before
Information has never been more accessible. A quick internet search can tell you everything from what constitutes wrongful termination to how the legal process works when filing claims. This democratization of knowledge has fundamentally shifted the power dynamic in workplaces.
Twenty years ago, an employee who felt they’d been unfairly dismissed might have simply moved on, assuming they had no recourse or not knowing where to turn. Today, that same employee can research their statutory employment rights within minutes, understand whether their termination of employment violated employment law, and even find out how to contact McDonald Murholme employment lawyers or other legal professionals who can assess their case.
Social media and online forums have also created communities where employees share their experiences and advice. Someone who’s successfully navigated an unfair dismissal claim often shares their story, inadvertently educating countless others who find themselves in similar situations. This collective knowledge has emboldened workers to stand up when they believe they’ve been wronged.
Remote Work Has Blurred Traditional Workplace Boundaries
The rise of remote work, accelerated dramatically by the pandemic, has created fertile ground for misunderstandings and disputes. When you’re managing performance through a screen rather than face-to-face, things get lost in translation.
Performance management becomes trickier when you can’t observe someone’s daily work habits directly. Managers might make assumptions about productivity based on limited metrics, leading to dismissals that employees feel are unjustified.
Meanwhile, employees working from home might not receive the same informal feedback and coaching that happens naturally in an office setting, meaning performance issues escalate more quickly than they would have otherwise.
The physical distance has also made difficult conversations in the workplace even harder. It’s tempting to handle a termination over video call or even email, but this approach often leaves employees feeling blindsided and disrespected. When people feel they haven’t been given a fair hearing, they’re far more likely to pursue an unfair dismissal claim.
There’s also the question of monitoring and privacy. Some employers have implemented surveillance software to track remote workers, and dismissals based on this data often end up contested. The legal standards around workplace monitoring in remote settings are still evolving, which creates gray areas that frequently result in disputes.
Economic Pressures Make People More Willing to Fight
Filing an unfair dismissal claim takes time, energy, and often money. In better economic times, someone who loses their job might focus on quickly finding a new position rather than looking backward. But when the job market is tight and financial pressures are mounting, the calculation changes.
The rising cost of living means that losing your income is more devastating than it might have been a decade ago. People have less of a financial cushion, making them more willing to pursue compensatory awards or monetary damages that could help bridge the gap while they search for new employment. The potential payoff from a successful claim becomes more meaningful when every dollar counts.
Small businesses sometimes struggle during economic downturns and may resort to questionable termination practices to cut costs quickly. They might skip proper procedures around notice periods or fail to follow the requirements laid out in employment contracts. These shortcuts, while tempting in the short term, create legal vulnerabilities that employees are increasingly quick to exploit.
Workplace Protections Have Expanded Significantly
Employment law hasn’t remained static. Protections for employees have grown considerably, covering more situations and groups of people than ever before.
Automatic unfair dismissal categories have expanded to include more protected characteristics and circumstances. Dismissing employees for raising health and safety concerns, taking maternity leave, or participating in industrial action are obvious examples, but the list keeps growing. Employers who aren’t keeping up with these changes sometimes stumble into violations without realizing it.
The concept of constructive dismissal has also gained prominence. Employees no longer need to wait to be formally fired to have a valid claim. If working conditions become so intolerable that resignation becomes the only reasonable option, that can constitute unfair dismissal. This recognition has opened the door to claims in situations that previously would have gone unchallenged.
Statutory rights around the National Minimum Wage, working hours, and breaks have also become more robust and better enforced. When employers violate these basic protections, it can contribute to an overall pattern of poor treatment that supports an unfair dismissal claim.
Documentation and Evidence Are Easier to Preserve
Modern technology has turned every employee into a potential documentarian of their own workplace experience. Emails, text messages, screenshots, and recorded meetings create a digital paper trail that’s easy to preserve and present as evidence.
This matters enormously when cases reach labor boards. Strong witness statements backed by documentary evidence make claims much harder to dismiss. Employees know this, and many are now systematically documenting issues as they arise, creating robust records long before any termination occurs.
The employee handbook, performance reviews, and any written communication about job expectations all become potential evidence. Human resources departments in larger organizations usually maintain careful records, but smaller employers sometimes operate more casually, only to discover that their lack of documentation works against them when a dispute arises.
Cultural Shifts Around Workplace Justice
There’s been a broader cultural shift toward accountability and transparency in how organizations treat people. Movements around various workplace issues have heightened awareness that unfair treatment shouldn’t be tolerated simply because it comes from someone in a position of authority.
Younger workers seem less willing to accept poor treatment as “just how things are.” They’re more likely to speak up about problems and to pursue formal complaints when internal channels fail. This generational shift in attitudes means that behaviors employers might have gotten away with previously now trigger official responses.
The stigma around filing claims has also diminished. There was a time when pursuing legal action against a former employer might have been seen as burning bridges or being difficult. Now it’s increasingly viewed as standing up for your rights.
The Path Forward
The rising number of unfair dismissal claims isn’t necessarily a bad thing for workplaces overall, though it certainly presents challenges for employers. These claims serve as a feedback mechanism, highlighting where employment practices fall short and pushing organizations toward fairer, more transparent systems.
For employers, the message is clear. Staying informed about employment law, maintaining good documentation, treating performance management as an ongoing process rather than a surprise event, and conducting terminations with proper procedure are essential protections.
For employees, knowing your rights and understanding options like filing claims through proper channels provides important protection. But the real goal should be workplaces where these protections rarely need to be invoked.
Sarah Mitchell is a workplace relations consultant based in Melbourne with over 7 years of experience advising both employers and employees on employment matters. She’s passionate about creating fairer workplaces and regularly writes about evolving employment law trends. When not consulting, Sarah enjoys hiking along the Great Ocean Road.
Editor’s note: Labour legislation differs from country to country so readers are advised to check with legal practitioners in their country for legal advice that is relevant to their circumstances.
