Is your redundancy actually genuine? Here's how to tell.
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Not every redundancy holds up. Under the Fair Work Act, your redundancy is only genuine if all three of the following are true.
The three-part test
- Your employer no longer needs anyone to do your job. Not just you, the role itself has to actually be gone.
- You were properly consulted. Under most awards and enterprise agreements, your employer has to tell you about the change, discuss it with you, and genuinely consider anything you raise before the decision is locked in.
- There was no reasonable option to redeploy you elsewhere in the business, or an associated entity, given your skills and experience.
If any of these don't stack up, your role is being advertised again, consultation happened after the decision was already made, or a suitable role existed but you weren't offered it, that's worth having looked at properly. A redundancy that isn't genuine can potentially be challenged, and may open up other options depending on what happened.
Common questions
They need to have actually looked, not just assumed. If a similar role exists elsewhere in the business, or with a related entity, and you weren't considered for it, that's a genuine-redundancy red flag worth raising.
Not on its own. What matters is whether the job itself, the actual duties, still needs to be done by someone. If your tasks were quietly absorbed by another employee or a contractor, the redundancy may not be genuine.
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