AI is creating more work for Australia’s workplace tribunal

Australia’s Fair Work Commission announced a review of its processes to cope with an influx of cases being lodged with the help of generative AI assistance tools, which it said has contributed to an estimated 70% workload increase over a three-year period.

The steep increase was due to more people self-representing in workplace cases, budget constraints, resourcing challenges and the “proliferation” of generative AI assistance tools, the Fair Work Commission said in a statement Friday.

AI and the other factors are directly impacting its ability to “provide timely, efficient and effective dispute resolution services to the community,” it said.

The commission’s remit includes a wide range of areas including maintaining minimum wages and conditions, unfair dismissal claims, discrimination, bullying and workplace sexual harassment.

It received 44,039 lodgments between July 2025 and April 2026, with two months left in the financial year. That compared with record lodgments of 44,075 received in the whole 2024–25 financial year period, it said.

The commission’s measures to deal with the increase include trialling a new system where its senior staff help parties try to informally resolve some disputes earlier in the process. It has also reviewed how it manages applications and is considering an AI voice agent to help triage helpline calls.

The Fair Work Commission is not alone in the challenges presented by AI. Last month, Radio New Zealand reported that in the property market, there were concerns that tenants were using AI to support their applications to the nation’s Tenancy Tribunal and creating extra work and backlog.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority, which deals with disputes in financial services, told Bloomberg it has seen increased AI use in how consumers engage with financial firms and lodge complaints.

“We understand AI can be a helpful tool for consumers,” a spokesperson said via email, adding it can help some people to articulate their concerns. “However, complaints generated using AI can sometimes include irrelevant, inaccurate or generic information, or may use legal arguments that don’t apply in Australian law.”

AFCA said it encourages people to keep their complaints simple because lengthy submissions “can slow down the dispute resolution process as it requires AFCA to work through large volumes of material to identify the relevant issues.”