Table K1—Applications lodged, hearings and conferences, and decisions and orders published
  Applications lodged Hearings and conferences Decisions and orders published
2011–12 37 442 18 709 13 846
2012–13 36 616 18 991 11 673
2013–14 37 066 19 620 13 302
Table K2—Website visits
Year Visits Desktop visits Mobile visits Tablet visits
2011–12 3 688 946 3 438 393 191 246 59 354
2012–13 3 624 414 3 182 782 282 284 159 674
2013–14 3 259 939 2 745 871 323 181 190 561
Table K3—Cases by matter type
Matter type Section of Fair Work Act (or other legislation in brackets) Cases lodged Timeliness1
2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 % change Median 90th Percentile
Agreements s.185 8565 7087 6754 -4.7 17 50
Orders relating to good faith bargaining ss.229, 236, 238, 240, 242 and 248 530 406 422 3.9 10 26
Dispute resolution ss.372, 526, and 739 (ss.699, 709 of the Workplace Relations Act 1996) 2627 2901 3295 13.6 20 48
Orders relating to industrial action ss.418, 419, 423, 424, 425, 426, 437, 447, 448, 459 and 472. 1446 1271 989 -22.2 2 6
General protections involving dismissal s.365 2162 2429 2879 18.5 29 59
Unfair dismissal applications s.394 14 027 14 818 14 796 -0.1 46 61
Appeals s.604 (s.120 of the Workplace Relations Act 1996) 184 143 214 49.7 78 166
Applications to terminate individual agreement-based transitional instruments (Sch. 3, Item 17, Sch 3, Item 18 and Sch 3, Item 19 of the Transitional Provisions Act) 3486 3173 2841 -10.5 35 67
Registered organisations (Chapt 11, pt 4, ss.13, 18, 30, 43, 44, 137, 151, 158, 159, 180, 189, 233, 235, 268, 273, Sch 2, Cl 1 of the Registered Organisations Act) 1102 1288 1381 7.2 – –
Other matters All other applications that have been lodged with the Commission during this reporting period 3313 3100 3495 12.7 – –
Total   37 442 36 616 37 066 1.2 – – 
(1) Timeliness is measured as lodgment to first hearing for all matters except agreements, appeals and applications to terminate individual agreement-based transitional instruments which are measured as median days from lodgment to finalisation.
Table K4—Nature of proceedings
Matter No.
Fair Work Act 2009 32 245
s.113(6)—Application for an order that terms of prior long service leave instrument are applicable 1
s.120—Application to vary redundancy pay for other employment or incapacity to pay 139
s.122—Transfer of employment situations that affect the obligation to pay redundancy pay 1
s.149A—Superannuation contributions for defined benefit members 1
s.156—4 yearly review of modern awards 34
s.156A—4 yearly review of default fund terms 1
s.156C—Application to list a standard MySuper product 67
s.156N—Application to include employer MySuper products on schedule 28
s.157—FWC may vary etc. modern awards if necessary to achieve modern awards objective 6
s.158—Application to make a modern award 1
s.158—Application to vary or revoke a modern award 17
s.160—Application to vary a modern award to remove ambiguity or uncertainty or correct error 13
s.185—Application for approval of a greenfields agreement 749
s.185—Application for approval of a multi-enterprise agreement 60
s.185—Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement 5945
s.210—Application for approval of a variation of an enterprise agreement 219
s.217—Application to vary an agreement to remove an ambiguity or uncertainty 171
s.222—Application for approval of a termination of an enterprise agreement 91
s.225—Application for termination of an enterprise agreement after its nominal expiry date 99
s.229—Application for a bargaining order 96
s.236—Application for a majority support determination 77
s.238—Application for a scope order 24
s.240—Application to deal with a bargaining dispute 208
s.242—Application for a low-paid authorisation 1
s.248—Application for a single interest employer authorisation 16
s.252—Application to extend single interest employer authorisation 1
s.285—Annual wage review 1
s.302—Application for an equal remuneration order 2
s.318—Application for an order relating to instruments covering new employer and transferring employees 1
s.318—Application for an order relating to instruments covering new employer and transferring employees in agreements 92
s.318—Application for an order relating to instruments covering new employer and transferring employees in awards 1
s.319—Application for an order re instruments covering new employer and non-transferring employees in agreements 52
s.320—Application to vary a transferable instrument—agreement 9
s.357—Misrepresenting employment as independent contracting arrangement 1
s.365—Application to deal with contraventions involving dismissal 2879
s.365—Application to deal with contraventions involving dismissal (consent arbitration) 8
s.372—Application to deal with other contravention disputes 779
s.394—Application for unfair dismissal remedy 14 796
s.402—Application for costs orders against lawyers and paid agents under s.401 5
s.418—Application for an order that industrial action by employees or employers stop etc. 145
s.419—Application for an order that industrial action by non-national system employees or employers stop etc. 3
s.423—Application to suspend or terminate protected industrial action—significant economic harm etc 1
s.424—Application to suspend or terminate protected industrial action—endangering life etc. 11
s.425—Application to suspend protected industrial action, cooling off 6
s.426—Application to suspend protected industrial action, significant harm to a third party 3
s.437—Application for a protected action ballot order 627
s.447—Application for variation of protected action ballot order 12
s.448—Application for revocation of protected action ballot order 54
s.459—Application to extend the 30 day period in which industrial action is authorised by protected action ballot 124
s.472—Application for an order relating to certain partial work bans 3
s.483AA—Application for an order to access non-member records 6
s.505—Application to deal with a right of entry dispute 68
s.508—Application to restrict rights if organisation or official has misused permit rights 1
s.512—Application for a right of entry permit 1325
s.516—Application to extend entry permit 3
s.520—Application for an affected member certificate 1
s.526—Application to deal with a dispute involving stand down 18
s.531—Application for an order where failure to notify or consult registered employee associations about dismissals 3
s.533—Application for an FWC Order 2
s.576(2)(ca)—Proceeding referred to FWC for mediation 8
s.587(1)(c)—Application to dismiss an application on the grounds that it has no reasonable prospects of success 1
s.590 application 1
s.602—Application to correct obvious error(s) etc. in relation to FWC’s decision 5
s.603—Application to vary or revoke a FWC decision 3
s.604—Appeal of decisions 214
s.739—Application to deal with a dispute 2366
s.739—Application to deal with a dispute in relation to flexible working arrangements 50
s.768AX—Application to vary copied State instruments 6
s.768BA—Application for an order about coverage for transferring employees under a state instrument 3
s.768BG—Application to consolidate orders in relation to non-transferring employees 6
s.773—Application to deal with an unlawful termination dispute 130
s.786—Application for an order re failure to notify or consult registered employee associations about terminations 1
s.789FC—Application for an order to stop bullying 343
Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 1382
Chapt. 11 Pt 4—Inquiries and investigations 5
Sch. 1, Cl. 2—Application for transitional recognition 3
Sch. 1, Cl. 5(6)—Cancellation of recognition of a transitionally recognised association by the General Manager 5
Sch. 2, Cl. 1—Application for recognition of state registered association 1
s.13(1)(b)—Advice and assistance to organisations 178
s.144(6)(b)—Application by General Manager on own motion to revoke postal ballot exemption 2
s.154C—Approved training 10
s.158(1)—Application for alteration of eligibility rules 14
s.158(1)—Application for change of name of organisation 2
s.158A—Application to General Manager for alteration of eligibility rules 4
s.159(1)—Notification of alterations of other rules 100
s.159(1)—Notification of alterations required under RO Amendment Act 31
s.18(a)—Application for registration by an association of employers 3
s.18(b)—Application for registration by an association of employees 2
s.180—Conscientious objection to membership of organisations 1
s.186(2)(b)—application by General Manager on own motion to revoke exemption to conduct elections 10
s.189(1)—Notification of elections for office 165
s.189(1)—Notification of elections for office—Casual vacancy or insufficient nominations 54
s.233(1)—Annual obligation to lodge information 174
s.235(1)—Authority to access certain records 3
s.236—Register of Members—request by member to inspect 1
s.268—Financial return 608
s.30(1)(a)—Application by organisation for cancellation of registration 2
s.30(1)(c)—Cancellation of registration on FWC’s own motion 1
s.330—General Manager makes inquiries 1
s.331—General Manager conducts investigation 1
Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Act 2012 1
Sch. 1, Item 39—Alteration of rules (exemption from section 148C) 1
Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 3180
Sch. 3, Item 10—Application to vary transitional instrument to remove ambiguity—agreement 3
Sch. 3, Item 12—Application to vary pre-reform or transitional award 23
Sch. 3, Item 15—Application by agreement to terminate collective agreement-based transitional instrument 12
Sch. 3, Item 16—Application to terminate collective agreement-based transitional instrument 75
Sch. 3, Item 17—Application by agreement to terminate individual agreement-based transitional instrument 1739
Sch. 3, Item 19—Declaration for unilateral termination with FWC approval to terminate individual agreement 1102
Sch. 5, Item 13B—Orders remedying reductions in take-home pay 2
Sch. 5, Item 3—Variation and term. certain transitional instruments etc. to take account of Part 10A award modernisation process 1
Sch. 5, Item 6—Review of all modern awards (other than modern enterprise and State PS awards) after first 2 years 2
Sch. 5, Item 9—Application for an order remedying reduction in take-home pay resulting from a modern award 7
Sch. 6, Item 4—Application to make a modern award to replace an enterprise instrument. 137
Sch. 6, Item 5—Application to terminate an enterprise instrument 21
Sch. 6, Item 5—Application to terminate an enterprise instrument—award 1
Sch. 6A, Item 4—Application to make a State reference public sector modern award 9
Sch. 6A, Item 5—Application to terminate a State reference public sector transitional award 9
Sch. 6A, Item 6—Modernisation of State reference public sector transitional awards 37
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 72
s.131—Application for a WHS entry permit 71
s.142—Application to deal with a WHS right of entry dispute 1
Workplace Relations Act 1996 135
s.170LW—pre-reform Act—Application for settlement of dispute (certified agreement) 35
s.268 RAO Schedule—Financial return 11
s.280—Financial reports 5
s.643—Application for relief re (harsh, unjust or unreasonable) termination of employment 2
s.699—Application to FWC to have a dispute resolution process conducted (Div 3) 13
s.709—Application to FWC to have a dispute resolution process conducted (Div 5) 69
Administrative 52
Award grievance procedure 1
OH&S Review Authority 4
Request for a Board of Reference 47
Total 37 066
Table K5—General protections disputes involving dismissal—Monthly comparison
Reporting period Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Total
2013–14 240 238 214 222 254 257 182 218 273 259 242 280 2879
2012–13 194 182 166 175 200 189 210 285 250 156 226 196 2429
2011–12 176 178 173 166 172 187 156 202 204 159 224 167 2164
Table K6—Unfair dismissal, conciliation—Results
Result type Total %
2012–13 2013–14 2012–13 2013–14
Settled        
Settled: Monetary 1669 1846 15.3 16.8
Settled: Non-monetary 2136 2008 19.6 18.3
Settled: Monetary + non-monetary 4906 4740 45.1 43.2
Settled: Reinstatement 79 30 0.7 0.3
Settled: Reinstatement + monetary 26 15 0.2 0.1
Settled: Reinstatement + non-monetary 19 14 0.2 0.1
Settled: Reinstatement, monetary + non-monetary 8 6 0.1 0.1
Not settled        
Not settled at conciliation 1963 2252 18.1 20.5
Not settled: Settlement collapsed 80 61 0.7 0.6
Total settled matters 8843 8659 81.2 78.9
Total NOT settled matters 2043 2313 18.8 21.1
Total resulted conciliations 10 886 10 972 100 100
Table K7—Unfair dismissal applications—Size of employer
Number of employees Total % of conciliations
2012–13 2013–14 2012–13 2013–14
1–14 2131 2006 19.6 18.3
15–99 3057 3020 28.0 27.5
>100 4741 5145 43.6 46.9
Unknown 7 5 0.1 0.0
Number of employees in dispute 950 796 8.7 7.3
Total Australia-wide 10 886 10 972 100 100
Table K8—Unfair dismissal applications lodged—Monthly comparison
Year Total Avg Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
2013–14 14 797 1233 1475 1307 1260 1185 1209 1374 956 1237 1316 1222 1112 1144
2012–13 14 818 1235 1233 1234 1055 1226 1259 1394 879 1258 1369 1346 1375 1190
2011–12 14 027 1169 1129 1173 1150 1065 1143 1297 908 1241 1427 1108 1284 1102
2010–11 12 840 1070 1087 1060 983 926 1022 1224 791 1127 1313 1047 1043 1217
2009–10 11 114 926 602 753 958 927 902 1072 697 1013 1236 956 997 1001
Table K9—Unfair dismissal—Finalisation
Claims settled, withdrawn or determined Number of matters
2012–13 2013–14
Prior to conciliation 2300 2273
At conciliation 8843 8659
After conciliation and before a conference/hearing before a Commission Member 2093 2475
Withdrawn after conference/hearing and before decision/order 49 41
By final decision/order 660 1200
Total 13 945 14 648
Table K10—Unfair dismissal jurisdictional hearing/conference—Results
  2012–13 2013–14
Objection upheld 258 374
Applicant not dismissed 36 45
Employer not national system employer 2 5
Frivolous, vexatious 2 0
Genuine redundancy 22 34
Irregular and/or casual employee 0 1
Minimum period of employment not served 44 50
Multiple applications 1 0
No award, agreement or high income employee 13 27
No employment relationship 10 25
No extension of time—Up to and including 7 days late 17 51
No extension of time—More than 7 days late 82 127
No reasonable prospect of success 23 9
Termination consistent with Small Business Fair Dismissal Code 8 8
Unknown 11 6
Objection dismissed 120 159
Applicant dismissed 15 19
Award, agreement and/or not high income employee 5 3
Employment relationship 15 28
Extension of time—Up to and including 7 days 30 34
Extension of time—More than 7 days 20 29
Minimum period of employment served 8 17
National system employer 1 0
No genuine redundancy 13 18
No multiple applications 0 3
Not frivolous, vexatious 5 0
Not irregular casual employee 5 5
Reasonable prospect of success 1 3
Termination inconsistent with Small Business Fair Dismissal Code 3 4
Unknown 4 12
Total objections 378 533 
Please note that an application may be found in or out of jurisdiction on numerous grounds. Accordingly, jurisdictional results are not cumulative.
Table K11—Unfair dismissal arbitration—Hearing/conference results
  2012–13 2013–14
Application dismissed (s.587) N/A 96
Application dismissed: (s.587) dismissed by Panel Head1 N/A 265
Failure to attend N/A 4
Incomplete application N/A 12
Minimum employment period not met N/A 166
No notice of discontinuance filed after settlement N/A 6
No reasonable prospect of success N/A 14
Non-compliance with directions N/A 5
Premature application N/A 6
Unpaid application N/A 54
Verbal or written advice of discontinuance N/A 14
Application to dismiss (s.399A): granted N/A 98
Application dismissed: dismissal was fair 256 175
Application granted: compensation 112 150
$0–$999 8 7
$1000–$1999 12 9
$2000–$3999 15 20
$4000–$5999 13 18
$6000–$7999 8 12
$8000–$9999 8 17
$10 000–$14 999 14 18
$15 000–$19 999 7 8
$20 000–$29 999 8 13
$30 000–$39 999 8 8
$40 000–maximum amount 3 10
No loss of wages 2 4
Unknown 6 6
Application granted: Reinstatement 8 9
Application granted: Reinstatement and lost remuneration 12 25
$0–$999 1 0
$1000–$1999 0 1
$2000–$3999 1 2
$4000–$5999 0 1
$6000–$7999 0 2
$8000–$9999 1 1
$10 000–$14 999 1 1
$15 000–$19 999 0 3
$20 000–$29 999 0 1
$30 000–$39 999 1 1
$40 000–maximum amount 0 4
No loss of wages 5 4
Unknown 2 4
Application granted: no remedy granted 14 8
Total Arbitration results Australia-wide 402 826 
(1) Please note that an application may be dismissed by Panel Head on numerous grounds. Accordingly, results are not cumulative.
Table K12—Registered organisations—Clearance rate of rules and advices
Matter type 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14
Lodged Finalised Lodged Finalised Lodged Finalised Lodged Finalised Lodged Finalised
s.13(1)(b) 52 49 116 117 166 161 188 163 178 168
s.159 71 81 89 83 68 69 70 59 100 91
RO Amendment Act 0 0 0 0 0 0 53 5 88 107
Total 123 130 205 200 234 230 311 227 366 366
Table K13—Registered organisations—Clearance rate of financial returns
  2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14
Lodged 411 416 424 368
Finalised 431 408 295 572
Table K14—Registered organisations—Clearance rate of annual returns
  2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14
Lodged 232 226 224 174
Finalised 232 224 208 261
Table K15—Registered organisations—Financial reporting compliance
  2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14
Lodged on time 241 318 319 332 342
Lodged following Commission intervention 155 80 73 46 37
Still outstanding 4 3 3 6 6
Table K16—Registered organisations—Annual returns compliance
  2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14
Lodged on time 152 157 179 217 197
Lodged following Commission intervention 89 85 54 12 8
Still outstanding 1 1 1 2 2