Your dismissal may be considered a genuine redundancy if:
A redundancy might not be genuine if:
If you're let go and your employer claims it was a redundancy, but you believe another suitable role was available, you may have grounds to challenge the dismissal.
The Fair Work Commission will look at whether your employer:
Only if you're covered by a modern award or enterprise agreement—and most do include consultation obligations.
However, high-income earners (earning above the Fair Work high income threshold) may not be covered by a modern award, which usually means the consultation requirement won’t apply—though they can still bring an unfair dismissal claim in certain situations.
If your employer was required to consult and didn’t, your redundancy may not be valid. Failing to consult doesn’t automatically make the dismissal unfair—but it could be a big factor if you take your case to the Fair Work Commission.
A real consultation isn’t just a quick chat or a last-minute email. It must be:
If your employer had already made up their mind before speaking to you, or didn’t really consider your input, that’s not a proper consultation.
The law expects employers to consider whether it would have been reasonable to redeploy you. That means looking at things like:
Even if a position is at a lower level or pays less, the Fair Work Commission may still find it would have been reasonable to offer it to you—especially if you would’ve accepted it.
And if your employer made you compete for another role instead of offering it to you outright, this might show they weren’t really making you redundant.
