You have 21 days to lodge an unfair dismissal claim. Here is what that actually means.
An independent guide to unfair dismissal and general protections claims at the Fair Work Commission: the 21-day lodgement deadline, who is eligible, what an order can pay, what it costs, and how the process actually runs, each figure sourced and dated.
Check your deadlineExplore the topics
Guides and explainers across the subject.
- What counts as unfair dismissal in Australia
- The 21-day deadline for an unfair dismissal or general protections claim
- Unfair dismissal vs general protections: which claim fits your situation
- Who is eligible to make an unfair dismissal claim
- What compensation could look like, and why reinstatement comes first
- How the unfair dismissal process and conciliation actually work
Guides and resources
The one deadline that decides everything else
An unfair dismissal application must be lodged with the Fair Work Commission within 21 days after the dismissal takes effect. A general protections dismissal application carries the same 21-day deadline. Both figures come from the Fair Work Commission's own Unfair Dismissals Benchbook and from its general protections guidance, current as at 15 September 2026 (see the sources on the relevant guide).
The Commission can allow a later application, but only in exceptional circumstances, and its own guidance is explicit that ignorance of the timeframe for lodgment is not an exceptional circumstance. For general protections applications specifically, the Commission states that about 80% of extension requests are denied. Whatever else is unresolved about a dismissal, the clock is not something to wait out.
Everything past this page works backward from that fact: whether you are the kind of employee the law protects, what an order could pay if you succeed, what it costs to apply, and what actually happens after you lodge. Start with the deadline, because it is the one thing here with no flexibility built in.