A few things in life are certain. The sky is blue,
puppies are adorable, and casual employees don't get redundancy
pay. Maybe you weren't fully across that last one but, in our
world, it's a given. Until now.
In a recent (and, in our view, wrong) decision, the majority of
the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission decided that, when
calculating redundancy pay, employers must recognise employees'
regular and systematic casual employment.
The Fair Work Act excludes casual employees from
redundancy pay. Nothing in the Full Bench's decision changes
that. However, in this case, the employees in question transitioned
from casual to permanent employment. Therefore, when redundancies
were rolled out, they had an entitlement to redundancy pay. In
calculating redundancy pay, their employer naturally took the
casual exclusion to mean casual service doesn't count. Makes
sense, except to the majority of the Full Bench.
