Sing it with me, Bob Dylan:
the times they are a changin’.
For one reason or another,
your business is undergoing significant operational changes and you need to
make some of your workforce redundant.
So, who do you make redundant,
how do you do it properly and, most importantly, what do you have to pay them?
- Who you make redundant will depend on the reasons for the redundancy, as well as the size of your business and the nature of the restructure.
- The proper process and procedure to be followed will depend on the terms of the employment contract and/or applicable modern award or enterprise bargaining agreement.
- Generally, you will not have to pay an employee redundancy pay in the following situations:
- The employee was employed on a casual or fixed-term contract;
- The employee has only been employed for less than 12 months; or
- The employee was an independent contractor.
There are some exceptions to
this rule and then some exceptions to those exceptions.
Also, those exceptions are not
the only exceptions.
Put simply, redundancy can be
incredibly complicated.
Get it right and get the
experts to talk you through it.
Penalties of up to $54,000 for
corporations and $10,800 apply to directors for breaching their redundancy
obligations under the Fair Work Act 2009
(Cth) so it pays to pay up! (Though only when you have to, of course.)
Call the Workplace Relations
team at Nevett Ford on (03) 9614 7111 and we’ll make it look easy.
