Who is eligible to make an unfair dismissal claim
Length of service, the high income threshold and, for a small number of people, casual employment status: what the Fair Work Commission actually checks before a case can proceed.
The Fair Work Commission's guidance sets out who is protected from unfair dismissal in a single sentence with several conditions joined by "and": you must work for a national system employer, you must have completed the minimum employment period before the dismissal, six months, or 12 months if the employer is a small business, and you must earn less than the high income threshold, currently $190,100 for a dismissal on or after 1 July 2026, unless a modern award or an enterprise agreement covers your employment, in which case the income threshold does not apply.
Minimum employment period
Six months is the general rule. It becomes 12 months if the employer is a small business, defined by the Fair Work Commission as a business with fewer than 15 employees. If a business changes ownership, the Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance notes that service with the earlier employer can count toward the minimum employment period with the new one, so a change of ownership does not automatically reset the clock.
The high income threshold, and the award exception
The high income threshold operates as a ceiling on eligibility for people not covered by an award or agreement: if you are not covered by a modern award and no enterprise agreement applies to you, you must earn less than the threshold to be eligible. It rises each 1 July; it moved from $183,100 to $190,100 on 1 July 2026, according to the Fair Work Commission. Someone earning above the threshold is not automatically excluded if a modern award or enterprise agreement covers their role.
Where this leaves a reader
These are the sourced conditions the Commission itself states. Working out whether they apply to a specific dismissal, including whether a particular award covers a role, is a case-by-case question this general explanation cannot answer for you.
Where this came from
- Fair Work Commission: Who the law protects from unfair dismissal.
- Fair Work Ombudsman: Unfair dismissal.
- Fair Work Commission: High income threshold.