Stats show that the number of unfair dismissal claims has risen under Labor’s Fair Work Act, and might reveal some flaws in compensation calculations.

The number of unfair dismissal claims lodged under the Fair Work Act has risen to about 17,000 per year, roughly in line with the Act’s increased coverage of workers.

Success rates for those who make claims have increased from 33 per cent under Work Choices to 51 per cent under the Fair Work Act.

Professor Paul Oslington, from the Australian Catholic University’s (ACU), and co-author Benoit Freyens constructed a database of all unfair dismissal cases that came before by Fair Work Australia and its predecessor bodies from 2000 to late 2010.

The information was divided into different factors, such as the size of the business, industry, occupation, worker tenure and wages, reasons for the dismissal, representation of both sides, and the outcome including any compensation or value of reinstatement.

“We found that payouts were much the same under all of the three regimes, averaging about 12 weeks pay, remembering payouts are capped at six months,” Professor Oslington said.

“One of the interesting sidelines was the bunching of payouts around particular figures, which we feel flows from the incoherence of the Sprigg test used by judges to calculate compensation amounts. A better economically-based procedure for calculating expected future earnings of a dismissed worker is required.”

Professor Oslington said no other country has changed dismissal regulation as radically as Australia has done twice over a short period of time.

“This has created a unique natural experiment and an opportunity for researchers to understand the economic effects of dismissal regulation.”