Tweed to Brisbane job change not suitable alternative employment

A recent decision of the Fair Work Commission has shed light on the age-old debate of when redeployment opportunities constitute “other acceptable employment”, with Deputy President Lake rejecting an employer’s application to reduce an employee’s redundancy pay because they had offered ongoing employment in Wacol, when his job in the Tweed Valley ended.

The electrical employee, who resided in northern-NSW, had been working exclusively on the Tweed Valley Hospital site since construction commenced in early-2022 until it wrapped up approximately two years later, when his employer offered ongoing work at several other locations, mostly in Queensland, with the closest opportunity being in Wacol (outer Brisbane).

In considering the employer’s application to vary the redundancy pay component, Deputy President Lake assessed the alternative job opportunity would have added nearly 100kms or an extra one hour, 16 mins driving time (or more than 2.5 hours by train) to the employee’s existing commute, labelling the change “a significant detrimental alteration in travelling time, whether that would be driving or commuting via train”. Although the Deputy President acknowledged the employee had moved into a role working on the Cross River Rail Project, he accepted the employee’s evidence he was able to catch the train to work in Brisbane CBD, where “there is more direct transport access from the Gold Coast”.

In determining the employer had failed to offer “other acceptable employment”, Deputy President Lake observed:

“Although [the employer] may ask their employees to work in other regions, the practical reality was that [the employee] was working at one location in the course of his employment. His role was not one where he would frequently travel to different locations or projects. By accepting the alternate role, the travel requirements would be more extensive than what he had been doing with [the employer]”.

Having achieved a little over two years’ service when his employment ceased due to redundancy, the employee was entitled to six weeks’ severance pay.

Australian Cabling Solutions Pty Ltd T/A Australian Cabling Solutions [2024] FWC 2591 (24 September 2024)