Dismissed by a WA state-system employer? You have 28 days.

• No minimum employment period. You can claim if you were dismissed in your first week.
• No small business exclusion, and no Small Business Fair Dismissal Code.
• No genuine redundancy exclusion. A redundancy is relevant to whether the dismissal was fair, but it doesn't stop you claiming.
• Casual, fixed-term, temporary and probationary employees can all claim, if there was a dismissal.

The Commission must take into account two things: whether you were on an agreed probation period and had worked on that basis for less than 3 months, and whether you were employed in a private home to provide services to the employer's household. Both are considerations, not bars.

The income bar — two limbs, both needed

The Commission can't decide your claim only if no award, industrial agreement, Commission order or employer-employee agreement applies to your job and your contract salary is above the prescribed amount — $212,800 from 1 July 2026, the WAIRC Registrar's figure, which the Commission describes as a guide. Salary is measured over the 12 months before the dismissal, and annualised if you worked there for less than a year. If an award or agreement covers your job, the bar can't apply, however much you earn.

Was there a dismissal?

The Commission can only look at fairness once it's shown that you were dismissed — that your employment ended at the employer's initiative. Three situations cause most of the arguments:

• Resignation. A resignation counts as a dismissal only if the employer's conduct made resigning the probable result or left you no real choice. You have to prove it, and if other ways of pursuing your complaint were open to you, the claim usually fails. Words of resignation said in anger or under pressure may be treated as withdrawn if you take them back within a reasonable time.
• Fixed terms. The end of an agreed fixed term is not a dismissal. Ending one early is — and the pay for the rest of the term can be a contractual benefits claim.
• Casuals. The question is whether you had one continuing relationship or a separate contract for each shift. Only the first can be ended by a dismissal, so the roster history matters.

Since 31 January 2025, whether you're an employee at all — and whether you're a casual — is decided on the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the relationship, including how the contract actually worked, not just its label. An employer that says you weren't its employee has to prove it.

The limit is jurisdictional. A late referral can go ahead only if the Commission accepts it because it would be unfair not to. If it isn't accepted, the Commission has no power to deal with the claim at all. In deciding, the Commission looks at:

• how late it is, and your explanation for the delay;
• anything you did to contest the dismissal in the meantime;
• prejudice to the employer — though no prejudice isn't enough on its own;
• the merits of the claim, looked at roughly;
• fairness between you and others in the same position.

You carry the onus of showing why a late claim should be accepted. Special circumstances aren't required, but the time limit is the starting point.

The 21-day federal claim. Even in the WA system, you can bring an unlawful termination claim under s 772 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) if you were dismissed for a reason including — among others on the list — a prescribed illness or injury, union activity, a complaint against the employer about a breach of the law, discrimination on a listed ground, or absence on parental leave. It has a 21-day limit, and the employer must prove the reason wasn't a prohibited one. Because lodging it engages the block above, the order of filing matters, and the 21 days won't wait while you work it out. Consider getting professional advice on it early.

What that means in practice:

• There's no "valid reason" element. Framing a WA claim around s 387 headings gets it wrong.
• Breaching the contract is neither necessary nor enough. A dismissal can be lawful at common law and still unfair.
• Process is one factor, not decisive. A denial of procedural fairness doesn't automatically make a dismissal unfair, and a flaw that wouldn't have changed the outcome may not matter. But a dismissal with a good reason can still be unfair if it was carried out unfairly — being marched out, locked out or told by text.
• Circumstances often weighed include length and quality of service, the workplace culture, your prospects of other work, and how the employer treated past incidents and other employees.
• Different treatment of a comparable employee who did the same thing and kept their job can make a dismissal unfair, but only if the comparison is genuinely like with like and backed by evidence.
• Redundancy can still be unfair in the way it's done: no information or discussion, no look at alternatives, unfair selection. Under the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993 (WA) s 41, an employer that decides to make you redundant must tell you as soon as reasonably practicable and discuss the effects and ways to reduce them. Casuals and apprentices aren't covered by s 41. The Termination, Change and Redundancy General Order ([2005] WAIRC 01715) adds a duty to consult in writing before a redundancy, up to one day's paid leave in each week of notice your employer gives to look for other work, and, if your employer has 15 or more employees, severance pay on top of notice — unless you're a casual, apprentice, trainee, on probation or a fixed term, or have less than a year's service. See redundancy.
• Probation lets an employer end employment more readily, but it still has to give you a proper chance to show you're suitable and must not act capriciously or unfairly.

Misconduct: what the employer has to show

Where the employer relies on misconduct, WA authority is divided. One line, most recently from the Full Bench, asks whether the employer honestly believed on reasonable grounds, after a proper inquiry and a fair chance to answer, that the misconduct happened. Another, from the Industrial Appeal Court, speaks of a burden on the employer to show the incident did occur. The point is unresolved. Either way, the quality of the employer's investigation matters a great deal.

If you were dismissed while injured at work, check the workers compensation rules too: during the 12 months after you first became unable to work because of the injury, an employer can't dismiss you solely or mainly because of your incapacity, and must give 28 days' notice in the approved form before dismissing you for any reason.

Injury is compensable in WA — unlike under the Fair Work Act. It covers harm such as humiliation, injury to feelings, callous treatment, loss of reputation and nervous shock. It must be proved with evidence and go beyond the distress that comes with most dismissals, and it sits inside the same 6-month cap as lost pay.

If an employer doesn't comply with an order, you can apply to the Industrial Magistrates Court, with no filing fee. Where a reinstatement order is ignored, the court can revoke it and order the employer to pay between 6 and 12 months' remuneration.

Lawyers can appear as of right on an unfair dismissal claim. From 1 September 2026, anyone paid to represent you must be a lawyer or a registered industrial agent. At first instance the Commission can't order costs for a lawyer or agent, so each side should expect to pay its own legal costs.

If money is owed under your contract — notice, the rest of a fixed term, a bonus — a contractual benefits claim can be lodged on Form 3 alongside. It has no cap, and it's decided on a different test. Unpaid award or minimum wages are a separate underpayment claim with a 6-year limit.