Redundancy for award free employees

The National Employment Standards (NES) under the Fair Work Act 2009 provide a statutory entitlement to redundancy pay for an award/agreement-free employee where the employer employs 15 employees or more, provided the employee has completed at least 12 months continuous service with the employer. However, under Sch 4 of the Fair Work (Transitional and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 (Cth), service prior to 1 January 2010 does not count for the purpose of calculating redundancy pay under the NES where an employee’s contract of employment does not, or never has contain(ed), a term relating to redundancy pay. Therefore, the employee’s entitlement to redundancy pay is determined by whether his contract of employment or a company policy provided for redundancy pay before 1 January 2010.