Future Workplace Summit 2026 Recap: Navigating the Next Chapter of Workplace Relations

The Kingston Reid 2026 Future Workplace Summit explored a question confronting workplace relations leaders across every sector: what issues demand attention now, and what developments are coming next?

From the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and evolving regulatory responses, to intensified enforcement activity, shifting bargaining dynamics and new forms of collective action, speakers navigated a workplace relations landscape changing at unprecedented speed.

For those unable to attend, this article recaps the key insights from the second day’s keynote presentations and expert panels, highlighting the trends shaping employer decision-making today and the legal, industrial and workforce challenges already emerging on the horizon.

AI has fundamentally altered who brings workplace claims and how many arrive. But the pace and scale of this change are staggering. Leveraging data collected by the Fair Work Commission, President Justice Adam Hatcher painted a stark picture with numbers:

• There were over 53,000 applications in the last financial year, with the largest increase seen in the number of general protections claims brought.
• The Commission's workload has surged 70% in three years, driven overwhelmingly by self-represented applicants using AI to draft and file applications.
• Self-represented parties now outnumber those with legal representation by 2.5 to 1, with the onset of this increase aligning with the public release of ChatGPT in 2022.

Despite these challenges, the Commission wants to embrace AI’s potential. It has begun using AI internally to streamline enterprise agreement approvals. The Commission is among the leading federal government institutions using this technology but has drawn a clear line: no decision-making is delegated to the machine.

Agentic AI is poised to take this further. Kingston Reid partner Michael Stutley contrasted generative AI with systems that can download forms, populate them, submit applications and pay fees without human input. This potential was made clear in a live demonstration of an AI advocate negotiating settlement during a mock conciliation.

Economist Chris Richardson described AI as "an opportunity the likes of which the world has not seen for many decades" for Australian productivity. Yet he warned Australia is under-investing in the workforce skills needed to capture its benefits, and cautioned against measures (such as taxing AI) that would slow adoption.

It appears that the nation has so far heeded that warning. Wendy Black of the Business Council of Australia confirmed that the Federal Government has stepped back from pursuing a comprehensive AI Act, recognising that such legislation would be "out of date" by the time it passed Parliament.

Yet the biggest domestic regulatory risk is states breaking rank and doing their own thing. NSW's digital systems legislation and Victoria's signalled intention to regulate AI use separately could fragment regulation along geographical lines, making compliance extremely difficult for companies, particularly those operating globally.

Lewis Silkin’s Benjamin Favaro contrasted Australia’s laissez-faire approach with the EU’s AI Act, which carries maximum fines of €37 million or 7% of global turnover and applies extraterritorially. The Act classifies employment-related AI systems, including recruitment and performance monitoring tools, as high-risk. It remains to be seen whether Australia follows suit, particularly given Europe’s repeated implementation delays.

Workplace and industrial relations are changing in ways beyond AI.Fair Work Ombudsman Anna Booth outlined a strategic enforcement model: a dispute assistance service resolves 98% of matters within 60 days (later announcing a recovered $450 million for 181,000 workers in 2025-26), while formal investigations are reserved for a smaller group of cases.

Booth also outlined the Ombudsman’s new criminal jurisdiction capability, supported by physically and digitally separate evidence systems and investigators. While no referrals have yet been made to the AFP or CDPP, she noted that both civil and criminal investigations typically take 18 months to two years and warned against pressure for premature prosecutions.

On the litigation front, Kate Eastman SC identified the emergence of litigation funders in employment class actions as a significant development, noting three major class actions against BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue on behalf of women who worked at remote mining locations over a 25-year period.

The preeminent silk also observed the marked shift in sexual harassment claim outcomes, and the dramatic rise in damages being awarded by courts and tribunals across the country. The rise in claims and favourable applicant outcomes can be attributed to the Respect at Work reforms, greater access to legal services, and general de-stigmatisation of reporting.

Kingston Reid’s Western Australian Partner James Parkinson observed that unions are increasingly treating litigation as a revenue stream, seeking substantial settlements and penalties alongside employee remediation. He predicted unions may increasingly work with the Fair Work Ombudsman to identify pay compliance issues and encourage prosecutions.

Collective industrial strategy is being reinvented. Transport Workers Union Secretary Michael Kaine explained that the union has pursued a deliberate 21-year plan to rebuild union density to 70%, centred not on organising individual workplaces but on making entire sectors more sustainable. The union has strategically aligned the expiry dates of 227 enterprise agreements so that standards can be moved across the industry simultaneously, with the explicit goal of reducing the total number of agreements over time to approximate uniform industry standards.

Kaine also described the TWU's use of the new road transport provisions within the Fair Work Commission (requiring the Commission to ensure the transport industry is "safe and sustainable") as an example of how collective strategy can address the economic pressures at the root of safety failures, rather than merely treating symptoms. He also disclosed that the TWU had just filed an application seeking contractual chain orders that would impose obligations on primary parties at the top of supply chains to prevent sham contracting in lower tiers.

Our sincere thanks to all our speakers, panellists, and attendees who made the summit as spectacular and engaging as it was. See you all next time!

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The views expressed in this article are general in nature only and do not constitute legal advice. Please contact us if you require specific advice tailored to the needs of your organisation.