What’s in a warning?

There are various reasons why an employer may need to give a warning to an employee, and circumstances in which an employer may later seek to rely on a warning when taking further disciplinary action.

As a result, it is important to get warnings in the workplace right. If you don't, you might find your warning is not a warning at all (or, at least, not a satisfactory warning).

In Kathryn Keane v The Trustee for Roscon Property Services Trust (U2025/9325), the Fair Work Commission helpfully provided guidance on what constitutes a warning, and noted the possibility for warnings to become 'aged' and lose relevance to future disciplinary action.

Here are the highlights (see paragraphs 30 and 31 of the decision, linked below, for more detail):

• Simply telling an employee to improve their performance is not a warning.

• A warning must: (a) identify the relevant aspect of the employee’s performance which is of concern to the employer; and (b) make it clear that the employee’s employment is at risk unless the performance issue identified is addressed.

• A warning is not indefinite. Even warnings that meet the above criteria can become aged and, when they do, their relevance to future disciplinary or performance concerns will be questionable.

• A warning must be precise. Vague references to 'inherent requirements' or 'disengagement' (as occurred in the the present case of Keane) are not satisfactory to amount to a warning.

  Kathryn Keane v The Trustee for Roscon Property Services Trust [2026]FWC 51