Employment Lawyers in Melbourne

Dismissed this week? You have 21 days to act.

If you have been dismissed, the Fair Work Commission will accept an unfair dismissal or general protections application for 21 calendar days from your last day. Not 21 business days. Weekends and public holidays count. The filing fee is $92.70 (waived if it would cause serious hardship). Extensions are granted only in exceptional circumstances, and “I was waiting to feel better” has never been one of them. Discrimination, bullying and harassment claims each carry their own clock, and most start the moment something happens.

Call MK Law on 1800 130 120 today. The first call is free, and we answer evenings and weekends because the calendar does not stop on Friday.

Most employers lose unfair dismissal claims on process, not on substance. No warning, no chance to respond, no support person, no documented investigation. If your employer skipped any of those steps, you have leverage. The conciliator at the Fair Work Commission is neutral. The room is not.

We act for employees and employers

This is not common in Melbourne. Most firms pick a side. We act for both, because the same legal framework governs both, and because acting across the table teaches you what the other side is going to do next. We do not run both sides of the same matter, so confidentiality is never a concern.

For employees, that means we know exactly how your employer’s lawyers think, what they will push for in conciliation, and where they will fold. For employers, it means our advice on dismissals, investigations and contracts already accounts for the claims an aggrieved staff member would later run.

How an employment file actually runs

Most calls start with one document: the termination letter, a write-up, a demotion email, or a redundancy notice. We read it on the first call. We tell you whether the path is unfair dismissal, general protections, contract breach, or something else, and we tell you the deadline that applies. By the end of the conversation you have a written assessment in your inbox and either a plan to lodge the application or a clear reason we are not the right lawyers for the matter.

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Unfair dismissal

The most common claim we run. The test under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) is whether the dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable. Most employers lose on process rather than on the facts: no warning, no chance to respond, no support person, no proper investigation. Compensation is capped at the lesser of six months of salary or $95,050 for dismissals on or after 1 July 2026 (indexed each year), and most matters settle at conciliation inside six weeks. Note the eligibility limit: employees earning above the high-income threshold of $190,100 a year (indexed 1 July) cannot bring an unfair dismissal claim unless covered by a modern award or enterprise agreement, although general protections remain open. Our unfair dismissal lawyers page covers eligibility and the test in full. If you have already lodged, or you are about to, the unfair dismissal process guide sets out what happens from the Form F2 through to conciliation.

General protections claims

If you were dismissed, demoted or disciplined because you exercised a workplace right (taking sick leave, complaining about safety, raising a pay query, joining a union), you may have a general protections claim. There is no salary cap, no minimum service period, and damages are uncapped. The 21-day filing window applies where the matter involves dismissal. See our wrongful termination page for adverse action that stops short of dismissal.

Workplace bullying and harassment

Repeated unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to your health is bullying under the Act. A worker can apply to the Fair Work Commission for a stop-bullying order while still employed, which is one of the few claim types that does not require you to leave the job first. Where the behaviour is sexual in nature, separate (and often stronger) remedies apply under federal and Victorian law. Detail at workplace bullying lawyers and sexual harassment lawyers.

Discrimination at work

Discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race, disability, pregnancy, carer status, religion, sexuality and several other protected attributes is unlawful under both the federal anti-discrimination Acts and the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic). Claims can be brought to the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, or as general protections claims in the Fair Work Commission. The right forum depends on the facts and on the remedy you want. See discrimination lawyers for more. Which system a problem lives in decides the deadline as much as the remedy, and employment law in Victoria maps the state and federal layers against each other.

Redundancy

A genuine redundancy is a complete defence to unfair dismissal, but only if the role is genuinely no longer needed, the employer has met consultation obligations under the relevant award or agreement, and redeployment was properly considered. We see plenty of dismissals dressed up as redundancies to dodge a claim, and we see plenty of redundancies that fall apart because the consultation step was skipped. Get the redundancy letter and selection criteria reviewed before you sign the deed of release. A deed signed under pressure can wipe out a claim worth six figures, and once signed it is almost impossible to undo.

Underpayment of wages

Wage theft is a live issue across Melbourne hospitality, retail, healthcare and professional services. If you have been paid below your modern award, misclassified as a contractor when you were really an employee, or denied overtime, penalty rates or superannuation, you can recover six years of back-pay plus interest. Sham contracting attracts civil penalties on top, and from 1 January 2025 intentional underpayment is a federal criminal offence. Unpaid superannuation is recovered separately through the ATO and back-paid with interest. Group claims by multiple staff at the same employer are common. See our penalty rates and modern awards pages for award-specific detail.

Contracts, restraints and gardening leave

Three quarters of the contract problems we see were avoidable at the signing stage. We review employment contracts before you sign, draft and negotiate executive packages (including equity and bonus protections on exit), and enforce or resist restraint of trade clauses when the relationship ends. Restraint enforcement turns on reasonableness, and Victorian courts will read down a clause that is too broad in scope, geography or duration. See gardening leave for restraint and notice-period issues during an exit.

Executives, shares and equity exits

Senior exits are rarely about base pay. The fight is usually over unvested options, performance rights, deferred STI and LTI, good-leaver versus bad-leaver classification, and the timing language buried in the plan rules. A poorly drafted deed of release can extinguish a future general protections claim and forfeit equity worth more than the cash component. Read the plan rules and the deed before you sign, and call us if the company is pressing for a same-day signature.

Whistleblower protection

Disclosures about misconduct, fraud or breaches of the Corporations Act, tax law or financial-services law can attract whistleblower protection under Part 9.4AAA of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Eligible whistleblowers cannot be victimised, dismissed or sued for making the disclosure. Compensation for detrimental conduct is uncapped. Identity protection applies automatically, and a company that breaches that confidentiality faces criminal penalties. The same conduct will often support a general protections claim under the Fair Work Act as well, and in practice the two are argued together.

Workplace investigations

For employers, an investigation done properly protects you against an adverse action claim later. Done badly, it becomes the centrepiece of the employee’s case. We run independent investigations for bullying, harassment, fraud and misconduct, and we represent employees called in as the subject or as a witness. Where the allegations involve emails, internal messages or social-media posts about the workplace, the matter can also raise defamation issues that we run alongside the employment file. Our civil lawyers in Melbourne cover that ground as well, so a file that spills into defamation, partnership or insolvency territory never has to leave the building.

Why senior exits get fought over equity, not pay

Most executives are advised to sign deeds of release the same week they receive them. Unvested options, performance rights, deferred STI and LTI, and good-leaver classification are usually negotiable inside the deed window. After signature, they almost never are. The plan rules are the document that decides the outcome, not the deed itself.

Review my deed before I sign

What it costs

The first call is free and confidential. After that, how far the matter runs makes most of the difference. A contract review or a concerns letter is a short, self-contained job. A file that goes from application through conciliation to a contested hearing is not, and most unfair dismissal and general protections matters stop well before that, at conciliation. Unfair dismissal also sits in a no-costs jurisdiction, so losing does not leave you paying the employer’s legal bill unless your claim was vexatious. We work out the scope with you on the first call.

Why hire a lawyer for a “simple” Fair Work matter

Because your employer hired one before they sacked you. Employers rarely run a termination, an investigation or a restructure without external HR and legal input. The conciliator at the Fair Work Commission is neutral; the room is not. A lawyer-drafted statement of claim, a worked-up loss schedule, and a counterpart who has run hundreds of these conciliations changes settlement numbers in the first hour.

Talk to a Melbourne employment lawyer today

Whether you were dismissed yesterday, you are sitting on an investigation letter, or you are an employer preparing for a difficult conversation, the right time to call is now. Call 1800 130 120 or use the form on this page. The first review is free, the file moves fast, and you will know on the first call whether you have a case worth running. Our FAQ answers the questions that come up on almost every one of those calls, though none of it beats describing your own week out loud.