45.1 The employer shall advise the Association in writing of any impending redundancy (see definition in clause 11) at least one month before it is expected to occur. The purpose of this period is to give reasonable time for the parties, including the affected employee(s), to discuss the situation, consider the options available to them and to negotiate an agreement.
(a) Options that might be considered when a redundancy exists include, but are not necessarily limited to:
- No change or reconfirmation in present position;
- Reassignment or redeployment to a new role;
- Reduction in hours, with severance based on loss of hours provided that no payment shall be made for a reduction in hours worked on rostered after-hours on-call duties (refer Clause 13.3);
- Natural attrition;
- Leave without pay;
- Early retirement;
- Retraining;
- Termination of employment and payment of severance;
- Any combination of the above.
(b) To ascertain which of the above should be applied to any affected individual the following principles should apply:
(i) Where reconfirmation (i.e. appointment to the same job, with the same conditions, albeit in a reconfigured service) can occur, that option shall be adopted and no severance is payable.
(ii) Severance will not be paid where the employee remains in essentially the same position but agrees to an increase in their hours or job size.
(c) Severance payments will be calculated according to the following formula:
- Six weeks’ base salary for the preceding 12 months of service or part service where the employee has had less than 12 months’ service; plus
- Two weeks’ base salary for the preceding 12 months multiplied by the number of years of service minus one, up to a maximum of 19; plus
- Where the period of total aggregated service is less than 20 years, 0.333 per cent of base salary for the preceding 12 months multiplied by the number of completed months in addition to the completed years of service; plus
- For an employee who has ten or more years’ qualifying service, a retiring gratuity in accordance with any entitlement they might have under Clause 20.
45.2 Technical Redundancy
If the employee’s employment is being terminated because of the sale or transfer of the whole or part of the employer’s business, nothing in this agreement shall require the employer to pay compensation for redundancy to the employee if the person acquiring the business or the part being sold or transferred:
(a) Has offered the employee employment in the business or the part being sold or transferred; and
(b) Has agreed to treat service with the employer as if it were service with that person and as if it were continuous; and
(c) The conditions of employment offered to the employee by the person acquiring the business or the part of the business being sold or transferred are the same as, or no less favourable than, the employee’s conditions of employment, including:
- any service related conditions; and
- any conditions relating to redundancy; and
- any conditions relating to superannuation;
under the employment being terminated; and
(d) The offer of employment by the person acquiring the business or part of the business being sold or transferred is an offer to employ the employee in that business or part of the business either;
- In the same or similar capacity as that in which the employee was employed by the employer; or
- In any capacity that the employee is willing to accept.