Reinstatement: the primary remedy, not compensation
The Fair Work Commission looks at reinstatement first, and only considers compensation once reinstatement has been ruled out as inappropriate.
Reinstatement, giving the employee their job back, is what the Fair Work Commission's own guidance calls the primary remedy in unfair dismissal cases: "When a Commission Member decides a dismissal is unfair they will see if reinstating the employee is appropriate. When reinstatement is not appropriate, other remedies will be looked at. This includes compensation."
What reinstatement can include
At the settlement stage, the Commission's own list of examples includes the employer giving the employee their job back, sometimes alongside continuity of service, meaning the employment is treated as though it never stopped. This can also happen as a negotiated conciliation outcome, not only as a hearing decision.
What the Commission actually orders, in practice
"Primary remedy" describes the ORDER the Commission works through, not how often each remedy is the result. Its own outcomes table for 2024-25 shows compensation is by far the more common result once a claim is granted at hearing: 134 applications granted with a monetary remedy, against 4 for reinstatement alone and 5 for reinstatement with lost remuneration. A reader weighing what a successful claim is likely to produce should expect compensation, not reinstatement, as the practical outcome, even though the Commission checks reinstatement first on every claim it upholds. Whether reinstatement is realistic in a given workplace, given how the relationship broke down, is itself part of what the Commission weighs before ruling it out.
Where this shows up at conciliation, not only at a hearing
Reinstatement is not only something a Commission Member orders after a formal hearing. It is also one of the outcomes parties negotiate directly at conciliation, sometimes alongside continuity of service so the return to work is treated as though the employment never stopped. That is a meaningful difference from compensation, which conciliation can also settle, because getting a job back through conciliation resolves the dispute without either side needing to run a full hearing on the merits.
What this site has sourced, and what it has not
The Fair Work Commission publishes the 2024-25 hearing-outcome counts above, and a median compensation figure of 5 to 7 weeks' pay, with fewer than 0.4% of applicants receiving the compensation cap. What is not published, and this site does not estimate, is a single percentage success rate across all applications lodged: the hearing-outcome table covers only matters that reached a formal Commission decision, not the larger number that settle at conciliation (about 75% of cases) or are withdrawn before a hearing. A dollar figure for the median is also not published; the Commission states it only as a range of weeks' pay.
Where this came from
- Fair Work Commission: Reinstatement after unfair dismissal.
- Fair Work Commission: Outcomes or remedies at an unfair dismissal hearing.
- Fair Work Commission: Compensation for unfair dismissal.