“Operational Requirements” and Valid Termination.

By Rohan Price

Fairness versus economic hardship. A recent case highlights the issue.

A recent case before the AIRC has highlighted the issue of whether, in industries facing tough times, the AIRC too readily find terminations resulting from restructuring justified on the operational requirements of the business, without examining the particular fairness or otherwise of the process for selecting those to be made redundant. The decision in Marskall and Robinson v NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative Pty Ld [AIRC (PR944286), 5/3/04)

Price muses that the definition of a general labourer has changed beyond recognition. No-one, it seems, is a general hand with non-specific skills, or simply factory fodder anymore. Now it seems employers have different skill categories everywhere (a reversal of their complaints about strict classifications and demarcation) so when it comes to redundancy they can pick and choose based on a whole lot of undisclosed attributes and requirements. The merit principle has been distorted and h argues that unions need to act collectively to ensure procedural fairness.

(CCH Industrial Law News, issue 5, 31 May 2004)