DIY Will – Disaster – Dealing with property contrary to survivorship rules under joint tenancy
31/12/2017
In a recent case an employer – Archer Operations Pty Ltd (A.C.N.105932634) T/a Hervey Bay Nurseries, sought to terminate all its workforce on a Friday and then re-employ the workforce on the following Monday into the same positions through a Labour Hire Company (Toner On Demand Pty Ltd) which it had previously set up. Those employees who were not re-employed and their employer said “we made them redundant”.
This matter was heard before Commissioner Simpson in March 2017, where our Paul Cate successfully argued that the dismissal of Ms Chance was not a genuine redundancy, but was an unfair dismissal. In the alternative argument Mr Cate also sought to show that Toner On Demand Pty Ltd was an associated entity of Archer Operations and in all the circumstances it was reasonable to redeploy Ms Chance to that entity.
Commissioner Simpson in obiter did find the entities were associated and further found that in the event the matter was not an unfair dismissal it would have been reasonable to redeploy Ms Chance with all her accrued entitlements to the associated entity.
Commissioner Simpson found the dismissal unfair as consultation had not been fully conducted as defined in the award.
https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/decisionssigned/html/pdf/2017fwc828.pdf