By Charles Power

In Wednesday’s Bulletin, I went over some of the details of a recent case – Hodgson v Amcor Ltd; Amcor Ltd & Ors v Barnes & Ors [2012] VSC 94.

Today, I want to go over how the Supreme Court of Victoria came to a decision about the redundancy aspect of this case, and remind you about the key principles regarding redundancy that you need to keep in mind.

In making its ruling in the Hodgson v Amcor case, the Court restated the following key principles regarding redundancy, based on the case law:

1. A job becomes redundant when it ceases to exist because the employer no longer desires to have the job performed by anyone.
2. This can occur where the duties of the job have changed to such a degree that for all practical purposes the original role no longer exists.
3. It can also occur where the employer still requires the duties attaching to a job to be performed, but decides to redistribute those duties among other employees with the effect that for all practical purposes the original role no longer exists i.e. the employee in that role is left with no duties to discharge.
4. Redundancy will not arise where the termination of employment is carried out solely because of any personal act or default of the employee terminated or for any consideration peculiar to that employee.

Stay tuned for next Wednesday’s Bulletin. I’ll be going over another important aspect of the Amcor case – and what your business can take from it.