What to do now
Official path: Fair Work Commission, Unfair deactivation. Form: Form F89. Clock: apply within 21 calendar days after the deactivation. Fee for 2026-27: $92.70 (changes on 1 July each year). Waiver: Form F80 for serious financial hardship.
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Check you are in the employee-like pathway, not ordinary unfair dismissal. Employees use Form F2, not F89. Employee-like overview: Fair Work Ombudsman.
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Confirm the deactivation date. You can only apply if the deactivation was on or after 26 February 2025.
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Confirm the work pattern. You need regular work for at least 6 months, counting from 26 August 2024, and annual earnings less than the contractor high income threshold (year starting 1 July 2026: $190,100).
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Gather evidence today. Platform messages, ratings history, deactivation notice, earnings records, and why you say the decision was harsh, unjust, or unreasonable. Note whether a short suspension (7 business days or less) was used with stated grounds.
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Lodge Form F89 by email to lodge@fwc.gov.au or at a local FWC office. The platform (respondent) then has 7 days to respond.
Who counts as employee-like
For this pathway you generally need to be an employee-like worker on a digital labour platform whose access was changed, suspended, or terminated so you cannot perform work through that platform.
Employee-like usually means you meet at least 2 of these: low bargaining power; pay at or below a comparable employee rate; low degree of authority over how the work is performed. See the FWO employee-like workers overview and the FWC unfair deactivation pages.
What the Commission looks at
For capacity or conduct issues (not serious misconduct), the Digital Labour Platform Deactivation Code applies. The Commission considers whether the deactivation was harsh, unjust, or unreasonable against that framework and your circumstances.
Short suspensions of 7 business days or less with reasonable grounds (for example health and safety, fraud concerns, licence issues, or an investigation) are treated as not unfair.
Soft related path (not this guide): Minimum Standards Orders and other regulated-worker processes may apply to some platform work. Check the FWC regulated-workers material if your issue is standards or contracts rather than deactivation.
Remedies
If the Commission finds the deactivation unfair, typical orders are reactivation and payment for money lost because of the deactivation. The Fair Work Commission cannot order compensation instead of reactivation.
Where to lodge and get help
Fair Work Commission: Unfair deactivation · Form F89 · lodge@fwc.gov.au
Threshold page: Contractor high income threshold
Fair Work Ombudsman: Employee-like workers
Legislation soft cite: Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 536LU (see the FWC pages for how it applies to your facts).