More on genuine redundancy under the Fair Work Act

Key Points:

There is a substantial obligation on the employer to place an otherwise redundant employee elsewhere in its organisation, including within associated entities if it wishes to avoid an unfair dismissal claim.

Employees are unable to make an unfair dismissal application when the dismissal is a "genuine redundancy". Section 389 of the Fair Work Act provides that a redundancy is genuine if:

• the employee's job is no longer required to be performed by anyone because of operational changes in the employer's enterprise; and
• the employer has complied with any obligation to consult about the redundancy in a relevant industrial instrument.

Additionally, for the redundancy to be genuine the employer must seek to redeploy the employee elsewhere in the enterprise, including to an associated entity, a matter we looked at in October's Workplace Relations Insights.