Thread: Restructure & Redundancy

Hello All,

An organisation has used the opportunity of changed conditions in a new contract to trigger a restructure.

At a recent meeting the proposed new company hierarchy was displayed on a PowerPoint slide. A number of job titles did not transfer from the old hierarchy to the new one.

It is claimed that all positions across the branch of the company are open. If you want a job you have to put in an expression of interest.

If people apply for a job and they are unsuccessful at interview they will be made redundant and paid out accordingly.

If someone does not put in any expression of interest and does not have an interview this is considered as Voluntary Redundancy. A VR apparently is taxed at a higher or different rate than a forced redundancy is.

I would have thought that if a new company hierarchy did not include your former role than that person's job no longer existed - and it equated to a forced redundancy.


How much of a tax hit do you receive in a Voluntary Redundancy compared to a "Forced" redundancy?

The length of the former contract was 2 years so we are not talking about decades of accrued benefits.

By the way, none of the people in the discontinued roles were under any form of performance review. As far as they were aware their organisation was happy and satisfied with their performance over the previous two years. This included two annual appraisals without any peep of dissatisfaction regarding their performance been raised. They were in fact encouraged to "keep up the good work".

The other thing is that there are some people who have been under performance review and their job role is continuing. There are multiple people who have the same role; their numbers are going to thin out. The people under review now know that they have targets on their backs. It is not a very happy work place at the moment.

Kind regards
Lionel

I have been made redundant 3 times in my life .

I don't see much difference with Newstart as a person being made redundant will usually receive a payout according to their length of service usually 2 weeks per year.( if you worked for Telstra you got 4 weeks per year. What a rort)

Accrued holiday leave is treated differently with less tax AFAIR. 30%?

The second last time I was made redundant from Austrade as I didn't apply for positions.
If you were there for 10 years or whatever the qualifying period you can also cash out long service leave at a lower tax rate.
I was also offered 6 weeks "stress leave" which I didn't accept as I thought it would not look good on my record, but in retrospect I would now take all the leave and "retraining" that is offered.

One thing I would consider if you are in a management position and over 40-45 , I found it very difficult to get another job. "Overqualified". It means too old and expensive. I have found that there is a lot of Ageism in the workplace despite what the propaganda says. No boss likes a subordinate with more experience than them.

However I really enjoyed being a TAFE teacher and consultant for 18 months before getting another executive position so all is not lost.
However if you are in a management position and would like one of the jobs on offer, I would go for it, as there is a great benefit in continuity of employment over a long period, that you will benefit from when you retire.

Regards Philip A