Redundancy is a reality facing many Australian workers during some stage of their working lives. The Australian law in relation to redundancy pay has undergone some drastic changes, after recent legislative reforms to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) - the Work Choices reforms. Prior to the
se reforms, Australian workers had some legal guarantees to redundancy pay in the form of standard award provisions, arbitrated by the Commonwealth and State industrial tribunals. After the reforms, these guarantees have disappeared, as the tribunals' powers to set award standards have been abolished and the states' laws are largely ousted.
The justifications for these reforms are that employers and ...