A team merger did not gut her role, the Commission found - her contract already let it change
In a twist on the usual redundancy fight, a senior editor at Australia's national broadcaster tried to argue herself out of a job. The Fair Work Commission would not let her.
The worker ran audio distribution as an editor at the ABC. When her team merged with another in December 2024, she told her managers the restructure felt like a "natural finish line" and asked to be made redundant. The merger, she argued, had wiped out her position and left nothing meaningful for her to do.
Her employer saw it differently. Her managers said neither she nor her role was redundant, because the work she did still needed doing. They told her she did not have to take a different job or manage new staff, and that she could stay focused on her existing responsibilities.
The disagreement went to arbitration under the ABC's enterprise agreement and section 739 of the Fair Work Act. The worker wanted the Commission to declare her redundant under the agreement, or to find that the employer's conduct triggered redundancy pay under the Act.
In a decision issued August 11, 2026, the Commission ruled against the worker on the questions she cared about most. It found she was not redundant, that her employment had not ended, and that the employer still needed her job done.
The outcome turned on her contract. One clause let the employer require her to "perform a broader range of functions and/or move between...
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