An employee is entitled to redundancy pay if their employment is terminated because:
- you no longer require the job that was done by the employee to be done by anyone,
- you, or your business, become insolvent or bankrupt.
The entitlement to redundancy pay is contained in the National Employment Standards. For further information on who is entitled to redundancy pay, what the entitlement is and how it applies to small businesses visit the general Redundancy page.
For cases of genuine redundancy, a template letter of termination due to redundancy is available below.
The Security Award provides further provisions about redundancy including provisions for employees who leave during a period of notice, a job search entitlement and what happens when an employee is transferred to lower paid duties because of redundancy. See clause 12 of the Security Award for further details.
Transitional provisions under the Security Award
Before 1 January 2010, your employees may have been covered by a Notional Agreement Preserving a State Award (or NAPSA) that provided more generous redundancy entitlements than those in the NES. If such an employee is made redundant any time before 31 December 2014 their redundancy pay entitlement is the amount in the NAPSA.
A summary of obligations in some of the NAPSAs is covered in the table below. Remember, employees receive whichever entitlement is more generous.
| New South Wales |
Security Industry (State) Award |
NES |
| Queensland |
Security Industry (Contractors) Award - State 2004 [AN140269] - Clause 4.10 |
Depends on how long your employee(s) have been working for your business – you will need to compare their entitlements under the NES and the NAPSA |
| South Australia |
Security Officers’ Award [AN150139] - Clause 4.5 |
Depends on how long your employee(s) have been working for your business – you will need to compare their entitlements under the NES and the NAPSA |
| Western Australia |
Security Industry Award NES |
Call us |
| Tasmania |
Security Industry Award NES |
NES |
If your redundancy obligations come from the NAPSA that applied to your business, click on the award title in the table above and look up the specified clause to find out the NAPSA redundancy obligtions. You will then need to compare this with the NES obligation (link above) and pay the more generous amount.
Employers in Victoria, Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory were not covered by NAPSAs and therefore need to pay redundancy in accordance with the NES (link above).
If you are not sure which NAPSA applied to yor employees, please contact us.
Example
Damian is a full-time security officer in South Australia and has been working for Action Motion Pty Ltd for 8 years.
On 20 March 2010 Action Motion Pty Ltd went into administration and was subsequently liquidated. As a consequence, Damian’s position was made redundant and the business could not offer him alternative employment. Damian’s employment was covered by the Security Officer’s Award, a NAPSA, prior to 1 January 2010. From 1 January 2010, Damian’s employment was covered by the Security Award and the NES.
The Security Officer’s Award provides for 12 weeks’ redundancy pay and the NES provides for 14 weeks’ redundancy pay.
Damian is entitled to 14 weeks of redundancy pay in accordance with the NES, as this provides a more generous entitlement.
Damian is terminated and given 5 weeks’ notice of termination (because he is over the age of 45), he is also paid out all outstanding wages, annual leave and 14 weeks’ redundancy pay.