Redundancy pay is generally not payable under the National Employment Standards (NES) to any of the following:
- an employee whose period of continuous service with the employer is less than 12 months
- an employee of a small business employer (see the Redundancy & small business section).
- an employee employed for a specified period of time, for a specified task, or for the duration of a specified season
- an employee whose employment is terminated because of serious misconduct
- a casual employee
- an employee (other than an apprentice) to whom a training arrangement applies and whose employment is for a specified period of time or is, for any reason, limited to the duration of the training arrangement
- an apprentice
- an employee to whom a industry-specific redundancy scheme in a modern award applies
- an employee to whom a redundancy scheme in an enterprise agreement applies if both:
- the scheme is an industry-specific redundancy scheme that is incorporated by reference (and as in force from time to time) into the enterprise agreement from a modern award that is in operation
- the employee is covered by the industry-specific redundancy scheme in the modern award.
A modern award, or enterprise agreement which incorporates modern award redundancy provisions, may state that an employee will not get redundancy pay if their employer finds other acceptable employment for you or in other specified situations.
The NES also allow Fair Work Australia to reduce an employee’s redundancy pay on application by an employer, if the employer either:
- finds other acceptable employment for the employee
- is unable to pay the full redundancy pay entitlement.