Workers fight for redundancy payments while employer argues only union can pursue the matter after termination
20 Jun 2025
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The Fair Work Commission (FWC) recently dealt with a jurisdictional question about whether workers could continue pursuing workplace disputes through formal processes after their employment had already ended.
Two female workers who had been employed for several years found themselves in disagreement with their employer about the nature of their employment contracts and what they were entitled to when their jobs ended.
The workers believed they were continuing employees entitled to redundancy payments, whilst their employer maintained they were fixed-term employees whose contracts had simply expired.
When their union initiated dispute proceedings on their behalf in December 2024, the workers' employment ended before the matter could be resolved.
The workers then filed their own applications with the FWC in March 2025, leading to a challenge about whether they could pursue the dispute at all.
The employer argued that only the union could pursue the matter since it had initiated the dispute, whilst the workers contended they should be able to continue the process themselves.
The dispute involved two workers at a research institute. The first worker had been employed since January 2010, whilst the second worker started in November 2017.
Both received identical letters on 25 November 2024 stating:...
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