The essential guide to redundancy during COVID-19

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The unprecedented disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) has left many employers considering...

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The unprecedented disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19) has left many employers considering their immediate options to reduce expenditure over the coming weeks and months. In most cases, substantial cost-savings may be able to be achieved by consulting with employees about reducing their hours...

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The essential guide to redundancy

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal In the current economic climate, it is critical for businesses to constantly...

By Calum Woods and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal In the current economic climate, it is critical for businesses to constantly identify opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce expenditure. While the prospect of redundancies is certainly not pleasant, they are often times unavoidable. Alongside the factors that necessitate a redundancy in the...

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Redundancy: A question of intent

Redundancy: A question of intent By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The concept of redundancy is a reasonably straightforward...

Redundancy: A question of intent By Alex Millman and Lindsay Carroll, NRA Legal The concept of redundancy is a reasonably straightforward one – the employer no longer requires the particular job occupied by an individual to be done by anyone. Case closed. The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) modifies this...

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Additional Obligations when Making Redundancies

By Sid Sidhu, Workplace Relations Advisor, and Emma Treherne, Principal Workplace Relations Advisor, NRA Legal Are you aware of your...

By Sid Sidhu, Workplace Relations Advisor, and Emma Treherne, Principal Workplace Relations Advisor, NRA Legal Are you aware of your obligations when making 15 or more staff redundant? Employers looking to dismiss 15 or more employees by way of redundancy are required to carry out additional obligations under the Fair Work...

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Penalised for the best of intentions

Protect yourself from costly mistakes by getting professional advice By Alex Millman and Justine Ansell, NRA Legal A mistake in handling...

Protect yourself from costly mistakes by getting professional advice By Alex Millman and Justine Ansell, NRA Legal A mistake in handling an employee’s redundancy around the same time as the commencement of her maternity leave has cost an employer $57,842.99 in compensation and penalties. The court found that had the manager consulted...

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Redundancy and redeployment

By Alex Millman and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Readers may recall our previous article in which we discussed the requirement...

By Alex Millman and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Readers may recall our previous article in which we discussed the requirement on employers to consult with their employees when undertaking a business restructure (see article here). In that article we identified that of the three matters that make up a ‘genuine redundancy’...

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The road to Hell …

By Alex Millman and Troy Wild, NRA Legal … is paved with good intentions. An employer who moved forward the date...

By Alex Millman and Troy Wild, NRA Legal … is paved with good intentions. An employer who moved forward the date of an employee’s redundancy so that she would be aware of it before she returned from maternity leave has been found to have breached the Fair Work Act (FW Act). Power...

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Requirement to ‘consult’ in the redundancy process

By Alex Millman, Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Restructuring a business often involves making employees redundant. This is...

By Alex Millman, Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Restructuring a business often involves making employees redundant. This is an unfortunate but logical truth. There is a natural tension between the freedom for businesses to be able to structure their operations in the most effective manner possible, and the need...

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Unfair dismissal case actually “genuine redundancy”

by Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA legal Case study: Laura Wrzoskiewicz v Easy Payroll Perth Pty Ltd FWC...

by Sid Sidhu and Troy Wild, NRA legal Case study: Laura Wrzoskiewicz v Easy Payroll Perth Pty Ltd FWC 2469 A recent case before the Fair Work Commission highlights the meaning of “genuine redundancy” and when an employee will be unable to substantiate an unfair dismissal claim. In this case, a...

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Rushed redundancies fall flat

by Meaghan Spencer and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Staples Australia Pty Ltd has come under fire after Fair Work Commissioner...

by Meaghan Spencer and Troy Wild, NRA Legal Staples Australia Pty Ltd has come under fire after Fair Work Commissioner Ian Cambridge determined that the company had an “unduly hasty and largely tokenistic” approach to meeting its redundancy obligations. In July last year, Staples tried to address a one million dollar...

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Dismissals can be stressful and risky

by Angela Szczepanski, Senior Associate, NRA Legal Dismissing an employee can be stressful and is often quoted as the 'worst...

by Angela Szczepanski, Senior Associate, NRA Legal Dismissing an employee can be stressful and is often quoted as the 'worst part of running a business'. As well as the emotional context, it can be a long and timely process to ensure due process is followed. In particular, special care needs to...

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IR Update: Special purpose employees ineligible for redundancy pay

In a recent case before the Fair Work Commission, it was decided that employees working under “special purpose contracts”...

In a recent case before the Fair Work Commission, it was decided that employees working under “special purpose contracts” were not eligible for redundancy pay on termination of their employment. Special purpose contracts include agreements whereby the employee has been contracted to perform a particular task or for a...

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