Stand Down possible

[Fabsteel]

At the moment due to a lack of work we are looking at several fulltime employees entitlements - fairwork states it has a stand down provision but reading our award Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2010 (MA000010) ... I can't see the same provision in place.
So assuming we can't effect the stand down provision then we will have to go the redundancies path?
We have already asked the employees to use their holiday entitlements to help the situation.
We have an apprentice who has finished their time in December, then continued with the company if we offer redundancy to him will we have to include the time spent as an apprentice? He was given a new contract when he finishd his apprenticeship.

Would welcome any suggestions or feedback

[Qld IR Consultant]

Before I give you some non-binding advice can you tell us if there is any casual, fixed term, part time or labour hire employees in the business?

[Fabsteel]

All labour hire and most casuals have been let go over the last month. The 2 casuals remaining are required to do a certain part of the last job then they also will be let go.

[Qld IR Consultant]

Well the next point is what projections have been done in terms of time frame of the standowns. Weeks? Months?...FWC don't look favourably on stand down without pay but that of course doesn't address the issue. My advice would be to communicate clearly with the employees as to the genuine need for redundancy. Follow a robust process, but if the likelihood is that work will pick up in the future, then make a genuine undertaking to re-hire those employees back. One of the biggest issues in Unfair Dismissal claims based on the perception of a non-genuine redundancy is that work picks up a short time after and the business goes back and hires all new people and leaves the old people thinking that it wasn't genuine and they end up lodging an application and creating a whole different issue for you.

Without know the whole ins and outs of the it all I would say the best thing is to follow redundancy, but be prepared that they still have the ability to make a UFD claim against you regardless.

[Cottoneyes]

Best to get a bit of professional tax advice as well with the redundancy path as well. The above advice is all good from the FWO front, however the ATO is another govt department you are going to have to deal with if paying redundancies. Ensure you have everything you need to justify the redundancy from a tax free portion, particularly if planning on rehiring the same people in the near future.

I don't envy your position

[Fabsteel]

Thanks for the comments very helpful
We actually retracted the redundancy arrangement as work came in.
I had one employee walk out didn't want to deal with it all, before the retraction notice so I'm thinking he is still eligible for the redundancy package but no notice payment.
any thoughts on this??

[hr63]

That is correct if you offered the redundancy. They get that payment but no "notice payment" as they gave no notice.

[Fabsteel]

Can anyone point me in the right direction for a sample retraction of redundancy notice or checklist to ensure that I cover all the bases. checked fairwork only notice of redundancy there..

[IndustrialResources]

At the moment due to a lack of work we are looking at several fulltime employees entitlements - fairwork states it has a stand down provision but reading our award Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2010 (MA000010) ...

As far as the Act provides, refer to section 524 providing that if none of the conditions of a thou c can be met (which from your post suggests is not due to 'lack of work') then the employees are still entitled to fulfilment of their contractual obligations (minimum engagement).

Industrial bodies generally don't see that economic down turn or loss of contracts as factors to allow employers to stand down their employees for a period. (see for eg. Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd v AMWU (WA) 1977 AILR 125)

No modern awards provide for a provision of stand down due to the AIRC modernisation priorities and left such matters as being incorporated into enterprise agreements so that if section 524 can't apply an enterprise agreement terms may.

See section 22 of the Act to resolve your service issues with the apprentice. Section 123 limits redundancy if the employee is actively serving an apprenticeship and if the intention of the parties was to continue employment with unbroken service, at the conclusion of the period of training you may find their apprenticeship time is counted as service.