6 Changes To Redundancy Laws You Must Be Aware Of!
Claire Berry on Feb 04 2010 at 2:45 pm | Filed under: Industrial Relations, Legal Obligations, Redundancy, workplace relations
Dear Reader,
If you think there is even the slightest chance you will ever have to make someone redundant, you MUST read this.
The introduction of the Fair Work Act has significantly affected your ability to make redundancies – and January 1 2010 saw even more changes made to redundancy legislation.
So I thought today’s Bulletin would be a good time to recap how the Fair Work Act has changed redundancy laws – and what that means for you!
So here they are…
Your 6 new redundancy requirements under the Fair Work Act
- If you employ 15 or more staff, you now have to pay retrenched employees minimum notice and redundancy pay.
- If you employ less than 15 staff and a modern award applies, you now have to pay the same amount of redundancy pay as larger employers – but capped at 8 weeks..
- The decision to retrench more than one award-based employee is no longer yours alone to make – you must consult with an employee BEFORE you decide to retrench them and explore all reasonable redeployment opportunities.
- Previously, WorkChoices exempted you from unfair dismissal in redundancy cases. Now, an employee you retrenched may be able to bring an unfair dismissal claim against you if you don’t follow award consultation procedures or offer reasonable redeployment!
- Your redundant employees may now be entitled under awards to ‘interview leave’ – i.e paid time off to seek alternative employment.
- You are now only able to terminate an employee by delivering them a written notice that clearly states their last day of employment.
If you need more information on your new redundancy obligations under the Fair Work Act, just refer to the Redundancy and Retrenchment chapter in your Employment Law Practical Handbook.
Not yet subscribed to the Employment Law Practical Handbook? Click here to find out more.
Until next time…
Claire
P.S Stay tuned for the next Workplace Bulletin – Charles is going to remind you about exactly which changes you need to make to your employment contracts and policies to ensure they comply with the NES.
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