A role with comparable characteristics was not an "acceptable" alternative for a retrenched employee, partly because it involved travelling to the office an extra day each week, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
The Fair Work Commission is allowing a late general protections claim to proceed, after an employer advertised a "similar" job to one it made redundant, just one day after the three-week time limit expired.
Despite receiving HR advice about how to handle a redundancy meeting, an employer gave a long-serving manager no prior notice of its decision and no opportunity to bring a support person, among other factors found to be unreasonable.
Ordering an employer to halt its restructuring plan is a "significant development" in the way workplace health and safety regulators approach psychosocial hazards, a lawyer says.
The redeployment obligations confirmed by the High Court today might be "pretty straightforward" in obvious hypothetical scenarios, but they're likely to become "very tricky" for employers operating in the real world, a lawyer says.
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.
Although failing to consult about redundancy would often render a dismissal via retrenchment unfair, an employer has defended an employee's claim based on his "inflexible" approach to workplace matters.
The "commensurate" positions an employer offered its workers because their roles were no longer required were in fact demotions that repudiated their employment contracts, the Fair Work Commission has found.
Employees' expectations around flexibility and hybrid working are creating "some interesting issues" in redundancy-related disputes, an employment lawyer says.
Redundancies are sometimes a necessary part of organisational change, and even well-managed processes can result in claims from departing employees. Watch this HR Daily Premium webcast to understand how to restructure while minimising legal risks and fallout.
