Redundancy... is it still a more convenient way of removing a difficult employee?

IN BRIEF

Removing staff that are not performing can be a protracted and convoluted process. For a long time, employers have often seen redundancy as an avenue for side stepping the various disciplinary/counselling sessions/warnings that have to occur prior to an employee being terminated for poor performance.

The beauty of the redundancy was that you could simply tell the employee that their position was no longer required and they were gone.

If the employer consults with the affected staff member (where an award employee) and looks for any alternative roles internally, a genuine redundancy remains one of the exceptions to the unfair dismissal division under the Fair Work Act.