Sacking casuals in Adelaide when they’re taking a break is cowardly and fairly common in Adelaide.
That’s why it’s a good idea to have an up-to-date resume. This story is from the Sydney Morning Herald.
“For the past year, Mario* had been looking forward to visiting his parents overseas. Two weeks into his holiday, he decided to check his work emails and found one from his manager asking him to contact him. Attached was a redundancy letter.
His initial reaction was shock, disbelief and disappointment. The letter stated that his job had become redundant and his role terminated by the end of the week.
“They asked employees to help out by taking time off, even work without pay. I should have heeded these signs,” he said.
The company had undergone several restructures, management changes and a new CEO.
“With all these changes, perhaps the writing was on the wall – but to do this while I’m away was extremely cowardly,” he said.
The experience has left him nervous about taking holidays or time off in future, and he’s not the only one.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) 2023, Work Shouldn’t Hurt survey reveals 42 per cent of insecure workers (including fixed-term and independent contractors, casuals, and gig platform workers) reported being worried about taking time off.
Employment law expert and principal Tim McDonald from McCabe lawyers said a company is entitled to make employees redundant for operational reasons but, they have to do it the right way.
This usually includes consulting affected employees, considering reasonable redeployment opportunities, and giving a period notice (or payment in lieu).
Terminating an employee legitimately for redundancy while on holidays, is unlikely to be unlawful.
“However, the fact that the employee is on holidays may be a mitigating factor that could be taken into account in the consultation process.”
If a redundancy is not genuine, or an employee is selected for redundancy for a discriminatory or other unlawful reason, they may make a claim to the Fair Work Commission for unfair dismissal or a breach of the general protections set out in the Fair Work Act.
The following steps are considered to be a genuine redundancy:
- When a person’s job is made redundant, the employer is required to follow the consultation requirements outlined in the Award or Enterprise Agreement.
- The consultation process means the employee can comment on the proposed changes and suggest alternatives. They can also identify other roles they could be transferred into.
- If a position vacancy exists in the organisation that an employee could reasonably do, they should be offered the opportunity to redeploy into that role rather than be dismissed.”