The centre promised a severance payout it never made, then posted the role four days earlier
An Australian childcare operator dismissed an educator as redundant, never paid the severance it promised, then advertised her role weeks later.
The Fair Work Commission was not persuaded. In a decision issued on August 3, 2026, it found the redundancy was not genuine and the dismissal was harsh, unjust and unreasonable.
The case, brought against The Little Unicorn On Honeysuckle Pty Ltd, is a clean study in how a redundancy comes apart when an employer skips the basics. For HR leaders, it rewards a close read.
The educator had worked at the centre since February 2025 as a part-time nursery support educator, averaging 22.3 hours a week. On March 5, 2026, she was called in without notice to a meeting in a storage cupboard and told her job was being made redundant. Few details were given.
A termination letter followed the next day. It described her position as "superfluous to our operational needs" after a review of "operational needs and ongoing financial viability," and ended her employment immediately. It also promised a "severance package including redundancy and termination renumerations" in the "next pay run."
According to the decision, that payment never arrived. She received no redundancy payment and no payment in lieu of notice, and was not paid wages for the last three days she worked.
Then the employer's position unravelled. On June 13, 2026, the educator saw a job...
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