You have 21 days. Your access was cut on day one.
An unfair dismissal application must reach the Fair Work Commission within 21 days of the dismissal taking effect, and late applications are accepted only in exceptional circumstances. In that same period the work email is disabled, the roster app stops loading and someone quietly leaves the team group chat.
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Roster · week of 6 July
Captured 12 Jul 2026, 21:40 UTC, two days before the dismissal.
Access denied
This account has been disabled. Contact your administrator.
Captured & sealed
SHA-256 · Bitcoin timestamp
Illustrative example. Fictional roster, fictional employer.
Unfair dismissal matters are decided on documents that live in systems you are about to lose access to. The Commission must receive your application within 21 days of the dismissal taking effect, with documents accepted no later than 11:59 pm on the deadline day, and an extension requires exceptional circumstances. The evidence that decides these cases is ordinary: the team WhatsApp group, the roster changes, the performance emails, the manager's message at 11 pm, the social media post about your replacement. ProofSnap captures each of those as a package containing the full page, the saved source, the URL, the UTC capture time, a SHA-256 hash of every file, an RSA-4096 signature and a Bitcoin blockchain timestamp, so a Commission member is not left choosing between two recollections. It works the same way for employers defending a claim. From $4.99 (about A$7) as a one-off purchase, with no subscription.
By Radim Motycka, Founder and Lead Engineer, ProofSnap · · Independently verifiable via Trust Verifier
What disappears in the first week
Dismissal and evidence loss happen on the same afternoon
The systems that hold your proof belong to the employer, and the clock starts the moment you walk out.
Accounts are disabled immediately
Work email, the intranet, the scheduling app and the HR portal usually stop working the same day. Anything you meant to save later is now behind a door you cannot open, and you cannot compel access before you have even lodged.
Someone removes you from the group
The team chat where the roster was changed, the shift was refused or the comment was made is often the strongest evidence in the file. Removal from the group can take the history with it, and messages deleted for everyone leave nothing behind.
21 days, received not sent
The deadline runs on the date the Commission receives your application, not the date you post or email it. Time spent hunting for evidence you no longer have is time taken directly out of that window.
What the Commission is weighing
Members are used to employees having fewer records than employers, and they look past the paperwork. That is not a reason to arrive without any.
The 21-day rule
Applications must reach the Commission within 21 days of the dismissal taking effect. Documents are accepted up to 11:59 pm on the deadline day. A further period is allowed only where the Commission is satisfied that exceptional circumstances caused the delay.
Messages are ordinary evidence here
Group chats, direct messages and social posts routinely decide these matters, on both sides. What is contested is rarely whether a message can be used, it is whether the version in front of the Commission is complete and unaltered.
Context beats the isolated screenshot
One message cropped out of a thread invites the reply that it is out of context. Capture the surrounding conversation, the timestamps and the participant list, so the sequence speaks for itself.
Employers are in the same position
If you are defending a claim, preserve the record before the employee's accounts are deprovisioned and before anyone tidies a channel. A capture made at the time of the decision is worth considerably more than one assembled after the application arrives.
Capture this in your first hour, before anything else
Work through it in order of how fast it will vanish: the team chat and any direct messages with your manager, then the roster or scheduling app, then anything still open in a browser tab from the work account, then the performance emails if you can still reach them, then any public post about the role or your replacement. Do not delete or edit anything, and do not access systems you have been told you may no longer use. Capture what you can lawfully see, and let your representative deal with the rest.
Three steps, about forty seconds
No forensic training required. The proof is in the package, not in your testimony about how careful you were.
Capture what is still open
Anything visible in your browser can be captured, including web versions of messaging services and any work systems still logged in. The whole page is saved, not just the visible window.
Each capture carries its own proof
SHA-256 hashes, an RSA-4096 signature over the manifest, and a Bitcoin blockchain anchor, so the capture time is independent of your computer and cannot be moved.
Lodge within the 21 days
Attach the PDF evidence report to your application or hand the ZIP to your representative. Every file can be re-verified by the other side in a browser.
What lands in the evidence package
Between 11 and 15 files depending on your plan, delivered as one ZIP that anyone can check without installing anything.
Full-page screenshot
The whole page, not just the visible window, stitched and hashed.
Saved page source
The document as rendered at capture time, including the head, meta tags and structured data.
Extracted page text
Searchable plain text, so a quote can be found and cited without retyping.
Technical metadata
URL, page title, HTTP response headers, browser, operating system and the capture time in UTC.
Signed manifest
SHA-256 for every file, signed with an RSA-4096 key whose public key ships in the package.
Blockchain timestamp
The manifest hash anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, so the capture time cannot be backdated.
Chain of custody and forensic log
A record of what happened during the capture, in the order it happened.
Evidence report as PDF
A readable summary you can attach to an application, a notice or a report.
Verification instructions
Written steps plus scripts, so the other side can re-check the hashes offline.
Where all of that comes from
Every file above is produced by one press in the side panel, while your login still works. Rosters, payslips, the warning email, the group chat you were removed from: each one takes about as long as reading it.
The 21 days run from the dismissal taking effect, not from the day you regain access, so the useful order is capture first and decide later whether any of it matters.
Want to see what comes out before you install anything? Download a sample evidence package and open it yourself.
Anyone can verify it, including the other side. Drop the ZIP onto the public Trust Verifier and the hashes, the signature and the timestamp are checked in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing depends on ProofSnap still existing.
Three ways to get the evidence
Prices are charged in USD. Approximate Australian figures are shown for orientation only, and your card issuer sets the actual rate.
One dispute
$4.99 once
about A$7
A SnapPack is a single up-front purchase for a set number of captures. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no trial. Best when you have one problem and you want it documented today.
Get a SnapPackOngoing matters
$8.99/month
about A$13
For anyone who captures regularly: practitioners, property managers, HR, investigators. The 7-day free trial requires a credit card. Cancel any time during the trial and you are not charged.
Start the 7-day trialWe do it for you
$44.99 per URL
about A$64
Send us the link and our team captures the package for you, with nothing to install. Useful when the capture should not come from a party to the dispute.
See the capture serviceProofSnap is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Qualified timestamps are issued by Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List. Australia has no equivalent regime, so that timestamp is independent corroboration here rather than a legal presumption.
Official sources
Every figure and deadline on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- Fair Work Commission: deadlines the 21-day rule and how the receipt date is calculated.
- Fair Work Ombudsman: unfair dismissal eligibility, the minimum employment period and the process.
- Legal Aid NSW: unfair dismissal evidence a checklist of the documents the Commission expects to see.
The standard is the balance of probabilities, not beyond reasonable doubt. That is a lower bar than people expect, and it is usually cleared by documents rather than by argument, which is exactly why losing access to the documents hurts so much.
Questions people actually ask
21 days, and the first one is already gone
Capture what you can still reach today. The rest of the case can wait until tomorrow.