A s.120 (Redundancy pay) application by Uniting Care West (UCW) T/A Uniting Care West has been agreed by Fair Work Commissioner Williams in Perth on 17 April 2019. The ruling was based on an interpretation of sections 119/120 of the Fair Work Act 2009. Section 120 applies if an employee is entitled to be paid an amount of redundancy pay by the employer because of section 119 of the Act. Section 119 says an employee is entitled to be paid redundancy pay if the employee’s employment is terminated because the employer no longer requires the job done by the employee to be done by anyone. The application indicates that the employee in question has been transferred to employment at a lower grade and her employment was not terminated. Because the employee’s employment was not terminated there is no entitlement to redundancy pay under section 119 that could be varied by the Commission. Similarly, the redundancy pay entitlement contained in clause 3.11 “What happens if a position becomes redundant?” of the applicable Uniting Care West Employee Collective Agreement 2016 only applies if an employee is terminated. In these circumstances there was not any entitlement to redundancy pay and not any entitlement that the Commission has power to vary under section 120 of the Act.
