On 3 June 2026, the Federal Government presented the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2025 to the House of Representatives.

It provides for a number of changes to:

1. Fair Work Commission rules and processes because of the high quantity and low integrity of AI generated claims of unfair dismissal and general protections and their impact on efficiency of FWC operations.  
2. A streamlined and mandatory process for supported bargaining authorisations to be issued following expiry of a previous supported bargaining enterprise agreement.
3. The high income threshold for access of road transport contracts to the Fair Work Commission’s unfair contract termination claims jurisdiction. 

And there are some new processes being introduced whereby the Fair Work Commission will have the ability to determine claims “on the papers” and to ban vexatious claimants (repeat offenders) from making any claim without the specific approval of a Presidential Member of the Commission.

Plus some of the changes have significant implications for employers and warrant consideration of ways to mitigate any related negative effects. 

Jurisdictional issues

One of the bottlenecks that the Fair Work Commission has noted is when there is a jurisdictional objection to a claim eg on the basis that the applicant isn’t eligible to make a claim and/or it is not within the Commission’s jurisdiction to deal with the application.

This can commonly be about whether the applicant is actually an employee or has sufficient service to qualify as eligible to make a claim or was dismissed on prohibited grounds.  

These jurisdictional questions have had to be dealt with before the application itself is dealt with. This Bill proposes to flip that. 

This change is that the Fair Work Commission would not deal with jurisdictional arguments – an employer would have to prosecute that objection in the Federal Court or the Federal Circuit Court and that is expensive.

Another effect is that the applicant is essentially guaranteed a hearing either on the papers or at conciliation by virtue of the fact that they made the application and regardless of their actual eligibility to do so. 

Decisions “on the papers”

The Bill provides for a new power for the Fair Work Commission to determine matters on the papers provided that it is satisfied that the matter is one that can be adequately determined in the absence of the parties and both parties agree to “on the papers ” determination,

Applications re unfair dismissal (employees), unfair termination (road transport contractors) and unfair deactivation (gig workers) are all in the mix here but we could see this facility extended to other areas of the Fair Work Commission’s work. 

This really does mean that employers need to consider whether their interests are best served by “on the papers” determination or going through conciliation and, if necessary, arbitration processes.

Is it a vexatious claim that should be thrown out “on the papers” or is it something where there is greater risk requiring the opportunity to negotiate a settlement?

It also really does mean that you need to make sure that “the papers” are properly prepared if they are going to be the basis for determination.

Frivolous and vexatious claims

The massive increase in applications, a significant proportion of which have been generated via AI by unrepresented applicants has caused the Fair Work Commission to look at ways to reduce the incidence of these “frivolous and vexatious claims”.

The legislation provides the Commission with a new ability to issue a binding order prohibiting an applicant who has had an application dismissed on the basis that it is frivolous, vexatious or possesses absolutely no reasonable prospect of success from making  similar claims in the future without the express and prior permission of a Presidential member of the Commission to do so.

Separately, the Fair Work Commission has made significant changes to application requirements specifically to minimise the impact of AI on claim numbers and to help to identify and dismiss frivolous and vexatious claims.  

Multi-employer bargaining

The Fair Work Commission can issue supported bargaining authorisations designed to enable multiple employers within a low paid industry to be drawn into a collective bargaining process by a union.

This Bill includes a mandate for the Fair Work Commission to issue a new supported bargaining authorisation to negotiate a new enterprise agreement for a workforce that was previously covered by a supported bargaining enterprise agreement.

That will happen if the application is made no earlier than three months prior and no later than two years after the nominal expiry date of the prior agreement and the new process features the same or substantially the same employer and employee cohorts as was the case with the prior agreement.

This makes it more difficult for an individual employer to cut themselves free from a cyclical multi-employer agreement process on an ongoing basis.

Access for regulated road transport contractors

Under the Closing Loopholes suite of legislative changes, road transport contractors were granted access to the Fair Work Commission for claims of unfair termination or deactivation of contracts, provided that their remuneration was less than the High Income Threshold which, at the time of writing, was $183,100 (moving to $190,100 from 1 July 2026).

This is the same as the threshold set for eligibility to make unfair dismissal claims by employees.

There has been a realisation that road transport contractors incur a lot of costs in generating their income that employees do not. As a result, the High Income Threshold for road transport contractors needs to be determined differently.

The Bill doesn’t state what that will look like but perhaps some guidance might be taken from the Victorian Owner Drivers and Forestry Contractors Act 2005 and how that is applied in practice. You can find a wide range of resources on the Business Victoria website including costs schedule for different categories of vehicles that are updated annually.

What’s that all mean for you?

Our key takeaways:

• We don’t expect that the Government will have any difficulty in getting the legislation passed so, if any of these issues resonate for your business, start addressing them.
• If you don’t have one, find an experienced workplace relations advisor who can help you to get the processes right pre-termination and post-termination to minimise exposures in unfair dismissal and general protections complaints.
• If you receive a frivolous or vexatious claim or one that you think doesn’t qualify, don’t bother trying to run a jurisdictional argument – try to get it dismissed or settled either on the papers or in conciliation.
• If you are in a designated low paid industry, explore the option of having your own enterprise agreement which would protect you from being dragged into a supported bargaining authorisation and multi-employer agreement.
• If you utilise road transport contractors in your supply chain, review your contracts for rates and terms including termination provisions to identify any potential risks from the expanded Fair Work Commission coverage that will be coming. You might also visit Business Victoria and check out their resources for owner drivers.

And, if you need a hand, just reach out – call 0438 533 311 or fill out the “Tell us what you need help with” form below.