Australia to create Fair Work Court for employment disputes
Sydney (24 July)
The Australian Government will create a specialised Fair Work Court to quickly resolve workplace disputes in partnership with the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s Prime Minister, Attorney-General, and Workplace Relations Minister said in a joint statement.
The Government plans to staff the Fair Work Court with specialist judges to support faster, simpler, and more accessible dispute resolutions, the ministers said on 23 July. “The … Fair Work Court will create a streamlined dispute resolution pathway, drawing on the expertise of specialist judges to make it easier and simpler for workers and businesses to navigate the legal system,” Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said.
But the Government has not finalised the court’s design. It will consult with workers, employers, and legal experts about the planned court later this year, according to the ministers. “Consultation will be central to shaping the design of the proposed court,” Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth said.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has backed the Government’s proposal because lengthy court delays discourage workers from recovering wages. Courts can take up to two years to resolve some underpayment and dismissal complaints, the union said.
“Too many employers can drag out court cases and grind workers into the dust while making them wait to get a fair hearing,” ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said. “We all know someone who was ripped off at work but didn’t think it was worth the time, the stress or the money to go after their wages,” McManus added.
But the Business Council of Australia (BCA) has warned that the Fair Work Court could add a layer of red tape and encourage combative workplace disputes. It also wants the Government to adopt a merit-based judicial appointment process for the court, BCA Chief Executive Bran Black said in a statement.
“[The Fair Work Court may] yet again add another layer of process without any real benefit … [It] is also taking workplaces back to the old days of combative disputes, rather than encouraging the cooperative workplaces for which we should be striving,” Black added.
Australia’s Keating Government created the Industrial Relations Court of Australia in 1994 to quickly handle labour disputes. But the Howard Government transferred its authority to the Federal Court of Australia three years later, functionally eliminating it.
John Howard has opposed the Government’s employment court proposal. “We need to get legalism out of employer-employee relations. The essence of a more productive economy is to have a good relationship at the workplace level between the employer and employee,” Howard told Sky News.
The Federal Government’s employment court proposal comes just over two years after the New South Wales Government re-established the Industrial Court of New South Wales, in July 2024.
The specialist court primarily handles public-sector industrial relations disputes and criminal workplace safety cases. Most private sector industrial relations disputes fall under the Federal Government’s Fair Work jurisdiction.
By Avinash Govind