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Casual service and redundancy

Does service as a casual count for redundancy?

Astonishingly, the answer is yes; at least where the service was regular and systematic.

In AMWU v Donau Pty Ltd [2016] FWCFB 3075 the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission was required to determine this issue and, in a stunning outcome to many, determined that regular and systematic service whilst a casual employee does count when calculating redundancy entitlements if that employee subsequently becomes a permanent employee and then at some point loses his or her job to its redundancy.

Although the majority of the Full Bench acknowledged that “industrial justice might suggest that it is unfair for an employee who has received a casual loading for a period of employment to have that period of employment also count towards the accrual of severance payments” it concluded that upon a proper construction of the legislation the positron was clear in the absence of an express exclusion in for casual service. This is an astonishing situation really since causal are of course paid a loading to compensate them for the lack of security in the position.

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