Redundancy with out employment contract

[Mrs Retail]

I have been working for a small company for the past 14 months or so without having signed an employment contract. I suspect that due to some restructuring my job will be made redundant. Do I have any rights under unfair dismissal laws, what are my employer's obligations - since there is no contract?
I would very much appreciate any advice. Thank you.

[Tiger]

Even if you didn't sign the employment contract, it is implied as you've been working for them. Redundancies are so common place these days (I have one friend who was retrenched five times in one year!), you should just accept it as a way of life. Companies are constantly restructuring and as a result, job holders are retrenched. A genuine redundancy is not an unfair dismissal and if it is a genuine redundancy, then no, you'll not have any success trying unfair dismissal on them.

Employer obligations are to consult with staff re redundancy etc and, if they are part of a group of companies, to try and find an alternative role for the job holder being retrenched but often that is just not possible either due to employee skills or just no other jobs available. Employers, if not a small business (ie with less than 15 employees), minimally have to follow the NES (national employment standard) for redundancy for which there is a sliding scale of weeks dependent on length of service - with 14 months in the job, minimally you would be entitled to two (2) weeks' notice and four (4) weeks' severance payment. A small business is generally exempt from having to pay the severance.

I suggest you have a chat with your HR person in the company or your Manager about what you think is going on and see if you can get some clarity &/or guarantees. If it looks like your gut is right and your job is at risk, then you can do one of two things, a) hang in there to the end and get your severance, or b) start looking for another job.

Tiger

[Kirt]

Hi,

Whilst not having a contract is not good practice it does not remove the need for your employer to act in accordance with the Fair Work Act.

A few key things to consider:-
- Is your employer a small business?
- What award are you under? From your name MrsRetail, if you work in retail sales you may be covered under the General Retail Award 2010.

Depending of the response to these questions it is possible that you may not be entitled to Redundancy pay. Probably the best advice I can give is to call Fairwork on 131394 and seek their input. Cheers and good luck.