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The High Court has this morning handed down an important decision that unsettles traditional thinking about the scope of employers' redeployment obligations during workplace restructures.

In its highly anticipated decision, the five-member bench unanimously ruled that assessing whether someone could be redeployed did not require the existence of a vacant position; rather, it was about whether there was work within the employer's enterprise that could have been performed by the otherwise redundant employee.

The case involved mining company Helensburgh Coal, which reduced its workforce in 2020 due to a pandemic-related downturn in demand. Specifically, it made about 90% of mining roles held by direct employees redundant, and reduced its use of external contractors by about 40%.

It faced 22 unfair dismissal claims from affected employees, who argued they shouldn't have been retrenched when work was still being performed by contractors...