Written and provided by FTMA’s HR Partner, HRAnywhere
Role Restructuring? What You Need to Know…
Often times, a business may no longer need an employee’s role to be done by anyone and therefore the role would be declared redundant. Fair Work does place an obligation on employers to consult with their employees about major workplace change and to also look for redeployment opportunities within the business. If there are no alternate options available, the employer may terminate the employee’s employment by means of redundancy.
The National Employment Standards (NES) in the Fair Work Act provides severance or redundancy pay for businesses with over 15 employees. Generally, small business with under 15 employees are exempt from paying severance. However, some Modern Awards have further information regarding redundancy pay for small businesses.
There are four key modern awards that most employees of FTMA members will fall under.
The Clerks – Private Sector Award, the Commercial Sales Award, and the Road Transport and Distribution Award reference the NES for severance pay. In essence, severance is only payable to employees of large businesses.
The Timber Award, however, is slightly different. It states that while redundancy pay is provided for in the NES, Clause 39.4 supplements the NES by providing redundancy pay for some employees of a small business – not those in the pulp and paper stream.
If you need assistance with restructures, including redundancies please contact our advisors at HRAnywhere on 1300 208 828 or email info@hranywhere.com.au.
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