ARTICLE · 17 AUGUST 2015

Sacking by text and Hutchison's consultation woes

Marque Lawyers

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Employers often overlook the importance of their EA consultation obligations, particularly when it comes to redundancies.

AustraliaEmployment and HR

Louise Rumble (Formerly With Marque Lawyers)

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The union is crying foul as nearly 100 of its members got the sack from Hutchison Ports supposedly by text and email, resulting in the Federal Court ordering the workers back to work, which Hutchison describes as "reverse slavery". Yikes.

So what's all this mess about?

Well it really boils down to particular obligations under an enterprise agreement (EA). The Hutchison EA contains, as do all EAs and modern awards, consultation obligations and dispute resolution procedures. The union, the MUA, claims that Hutchison failed to follow these obligations when it terminated its members due to redundancy as, what little consultation the company did do, was tokenistic and inadequate. The icing on the cake was the text message sackings.

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