Historically, it has been common practice for employers to pay termination payment entitlements either within seven days of termination or in the next pay cycle. However, the 2025 decision of Jewell v Magnium Australia Pty Ltd (No 2) [2025] FedCFamC2G 676 confirmed that employers who fail to pay entitlements on the final day of employment risk financial penalties.

On 12 April 2023, Dr Jewell’s employment with Magnium Australia Pty Ltd ended due to redundancy. On 2 May 2023, Magnium paid Jewell payment in lieu of notice and his accrued annual leave in its usual payroll run. Magnium incorrectly believed it was not required to pay redundancy pay but eventually paid this to Jewell on 18 July 2023 and paid a further amount on 3 August 2023 to correct calculation errors.

Jewell brought a general protections claim against Magnium which was unsuccessful, but during the proceedings Magnium admitted contraventions of the following National Employment Standards (NES) in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act):

• Section 117(2)(b), which makes it unlawful to terminate an employee’s employment unless it has given notice or made a payment in lieu of notice.
• Section 90(2), which provides that accrued and untaken annual leave must be paid when the employment of an employee ends.
• Section 119, which provides an employer must pay redundancy pay to an employee if their employment is terminated due to redundancy.

These admissions were made by Magnium because, although it had made the payments...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMipAFBVV95cUxQUnlLYVkxYmpfUG9CeUFJMWNX...