With the general downturn in the economy over the last few years
a number of employers have sought Addisons' advice regarding
the method they should adopt in selecting employees to be made
redundant. This usually arises where the employer has a number of
employees performing the same type of work and the employer is
restructuring its workforce and abolishing one or more of these
positions. The question which we are asked is "How do I
select the employees who are to be made redundant and not expose
myself to a legal claim?".
The good news for employers is that Fair Work Australia has
recently ruled1 that where a position has become
genuinely redundant, the selection process by which the employer
chooses the particular employee who is to be made redundant is
irrelevant when it comes to determining the "fairness" of
the dismissal or whether the redundancy is genuine.
