One system covers both territories
If you were dismissed in Canberra, in Darwin, in Alice Springs or anywhere else in either territory, your claim goes to the Fair Work Commission. There is no ACT unfair dismissal tribunal and there is no Northern Territory one.
As territories, both sit wholly under the Fair Work Act, so everybody lodges federally, whoever employed you and whatever kind of entity they are.
That is the jurisdiction question answered in a sentence. It is worth understanding why, because it changes what you should be reading and where your risk actually sits.
The same answer as Victoria, for a different reason
Victoria has one system too, and it is worth being clear that the territories are not there for the same reason.
Victoria held industrial relations powers of its own and referred them to the Commonwealth. The ACT and the Northern Territory are not there by referral. As territories, they sit wholly under the Fair Work Act, which is why everybody here lodges federally.
The outcome is the same either way. If you want the same argument made from the state side, our Victorian guide covers it.
There is no second door
This is the part worth sitting with.
In Western Australia an employee of a sole trader is in the state system. In New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, state public servants and local government employees go to their own tribunal. Even Tasmania, which referred private sector work to the Commonwealth from 2010 with sole traders and partnerships included, kept its State Service employees at the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.
The ACT and the NT have no equivalent pocket. That removes the trap that costs people claims elsewhere: nobody here lodges federally and is told weeks later that the Commission has no power over their employer.
It also removes the fallback. In a state, an employee shut out of the Fair Work Commission sometimes has somewhere else to try. You do not. Federal eligibility is not one question among several for you. It is the whole question.
Which makes eligibility the whole game
Read the eligibility page before you do anything else, and read it properly. Four things decide most claims:
- The minimum employment period. 6 months with the employer, or 12 months if it is a small business.
- The deadline. 21 days from the day the dismissal took effect, covered below. Extensions are granted only in exceptional circumstances.
- The high income threshold. At or above $190,100, with no modern award covering you and no enterprise agreement applying to you, unfair dismissal is closed off.
- Whether you were dismissed at all. If you resigned because you were left no real choice, read constructive dismissal.
If unfair dismissal is closed to you, what changes is the claim rather than the tribunal. Where the reason for the dismissal was a protected one, general protections may still be open, and there are other claims with longer time limits set out on the unfair dismissal page. Our comparison of the two claims sets out which fits.
Your deadline is 21 days
You have 21 days from the day the dismissal took effect to lodge with the Fair Work Commission. Extensions are granted only in exceptional circumstances, so a missed deadline is usually the end of it.
Compensation, if you succeed and reinstatement is not ordered, is capped at the lesser of 26 weeks' pay or $95,050.
Where to start
- What unfair dismissal is and the test the Commission applies
- Whether you are eligible, including the deadline and the minimum employment period
- What a claim can be worth
- What happens after you lodge
This page is general information about unfair dismissal in the ACT and the NT, not advice about your circumstances.
Tell us what happened and we will tell you honestly whether you are covered, what your deadline is, and whether it is worth pursuing.
Call 1800 UNFAIR (1800 863 247). The first call is free and there is no obligation. Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm, weekends 9am to 5pm.