Which system covers you: the national system, or a state one
Most Australian employees and employers sit in the national system the Fair Work Commission runs. Western Australia is the sharpest exception, with a large slice of private employment sitting outside it entirely.
Most, but not all, employers and employees in Australia are part of the national workplace relations system, sometimes called the Fair Work system, which the Fair Work Commission administers. Where an employer or employee is not part of it, the industrial relations system of their own state or territory covers them instead, run by a separate tribunal with its own rules. This is the one place on this site where state and territory variation actually changes which body you would apply to, so it is covered here as a single, comprehensive page rather than as a page per state.
By state and territory
| Location | In the national system | Outside the national system |
|---|---|---|
| ACT | All employees | None |
| NSW | Private enterprise employees | State public sector employees, local government employees |
| NT | All employees except Police Force members | Members of the Police Force |
| QLD | Private enterprise employees | State public sector employees, local government employees |
| SA | Private enterprise employees | State public sector employees, local government employees |
| TAS | Private enterprise employees | Local government employees, state public sector employees |
| VIC | All employees except some in the state public sector | State public sector employees at executive and higher managerial levels, law enforcement officers |
| WA | Employees of employers that are constitutional corporations (including Pty Ltd companies) | Local government and state public sector employees, and employees of employers that are NOT constitutional corporations, including an individual, a sole trader or a partnership |
| Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands | All employees | None |
Western Australia is the sharpest exception
WA is the only state where a large slice of private employment sits outside the Fair Work Commission's jurisdiction entirely. An employer that is not a constitutional corporation, meaning an individual, a sole trader, or an ordinary partnership rather than a company, is outside the national system in WA and falls instead to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The Fair Work Commission defines a constitutional corporation as a financial corporation formed in Australia, a trading corporation formed in Australia, or a foreign corporation doing business in Australia.
Local government is a recurring carve-out
In Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, the Fair Work Commission's own guidance notes that local governments can technically be constitutional corporations but are still not treated as national system employers. Their employees may still be covered by general protections, bullying and sexual harassment laws even where ordinary unfair dismissal protection does not apply through the national system.
The state tribunals, named
- New South Wales: Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales
- Queensland: Queensland Industrial Relations Commission
- South Australia: South Australian Employment Tribunal
- Tasmania: Tasmanian Industrial Commission
- Western Australia: Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission