Failure to consider redeployment upon redundancy can have costly impacts

In a recent decision of Fair Work Australia, a long serving employee has been awarded $25,000 in compensation for his unfair dismissal from dealership giant A P Eagers.

The employee was on an annual a package of around $100,000 and a decision was made to restructure the business which resulted in his position no longer being available. However, a new position was created which had an annual salary of $55,000.

The company made a decision not to offer the new position to the employee on the basis that it thought doing so would amount to a constructive dismissal of the employee's employment. The company was concerned that given the disparity between the two positions, the employee would be able to argue that the employer had terminated the employee's employment.