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The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has received an explosion of dismissal claims it says is being driven by applicants using AI.
The Commission is on track to receive an unprecedented number of claims this financial year, which will increase their workload by about 70 per cent since 2023.
Their most recent data shows they had 44,039 applications submitted at the end of April, just short of their 2024-25 record.
In a statement, FWC General Manager Murray Furlong said the increase coincided with the number of people representing themselves, and budget and resourcing challenges.
“Additionally, the proliferation of generative AI assistance tools has had a significant impact on the Commission’s work,” he said.
The Commission’s President Adam Hatcher already sounded the alarm about the huge growth in unfair dismissal claims.
He warned the demand was unsustainable within their current operational and funding structures and risked compromising their capacity to resource high public value matters such as enterprise bargaining and industrial disputes.
“Historically, there was a clear correlation between the number of dismissal-related applications to the Commission and the state of the labour market,” Mr Hatcher said.
“However, that correlation has broken down over the past few years and this has broadly coincided with the introduction of popular GenAI tools.”
Mr Furlong said it was straining every element of the Commission’s operations and there were no signs of applications slowing down putting pressure on their resources.
“This is unsustainable and we cannot continue to operate in the same way,” he said.
A review into dismissal cases has found more users going to the Commission with little or no workplace relations experience that were informed by AI generated content and used AI in their applications.
Mr Furlong said the review was likely lead to major changes at the Commission to address the challenges it was facing.
Under the reforms, the Commission will introduce AI forms and an AI-assisted helpline to triage calls to improve service delivery and manage the high volume of calls it receives outside its jurisdiction.
The FWC will also look at reducing its office footprint and co-locate with other agencies in Melbourne and Canberra where their tenancies are due to end within the next three years to save money so they can meet their service obligations.
“The Melbourne tenancy is the Commission’s largest financial commitment and, given the size of the tenancy, we are exploring options to reduce our footprint,” he said.
“In Canberra we are looking at opportunities to co-locate with other government agencies as we already do in other locations.
“The pace of change at the Commission is high, and regular users should expect changes in how they interact with our services.”
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