Made Redundant? Check Your Payout Against the NES Redundancy Scale in 2 Minutes

The meeting took eight minutes. “Your position is being made redundant, effective today, here’s your final pay.” The number on the payslip looks light. When you ask, payroll says “that’s the calculation” and HR says “we’re a small business” or “you weren’t here long enough”. Nobody shows you the working.

Redundancy pay in Australia is not a negotiation. It’s a table in the Fair Work Act, and notice, annual leave and long service leave sit alongside it with their own rules. Check the numbers before you sign anything, and put the shortfall in writing.

Your rights

The National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) set the minimums for every national-system employee:

• Redundancy pay (s 119), based on continuous service: 1–2 years, 4 weeks; 2–3 years, 6 weeks; 3–4 years, 7 weeks; 4–5 years, 8 weeks; 5–6 years, 10 weeks; 6–7 years, 11 weeks; 7–8 years, 13 weeks; 8–9 years, 14 weeks; 9–10 years, 16 weeks; 10 years or more, 12 weeks. It’s paid at your base rate for ordinary hours. Under one year: nil (unless your award or agreement says otherwise).
• Notice of termination (s 117): up to 1 year, 1 week; 1–3 years, 2 weeks; 3–5 years, 3 weeks; over 5 years, 4 weeks; plus 1 week if you are over 45 with at least 2 years’ service. If they don’t give you the notice, they must pay it in lieu.
• Accrued annual leave (s 90) must be paid out in full, plus leave loading where your award or agreement provides it. Personal/sick leave is not paid out.
• Superannuation on the ordinary-time components, and any award or contract entitlements (commissions, allowances, unpaid overtime).

Two exemptions are real but narrow. A small business employer (fewer than 15 employees, counted across the whole business including casuals employed regularly and related entities) doesn’t have to pay redundancy pay under s 121, but still owes notice and leave, and some awards override the exemption. And an employer can apply to the Commission under s 120 to reduce redundancy pay if it obtained you acceptable alternative employment or genuinely can’t pay; it cannot simply decide that for itself.

By state

Redundancy, notice and annual leave are federal. Long service leave is state law, and on termination you are entitled to be paid out any LSL you have accrued (and, in most states, pro-rata LSL if you’ve reached the threshold):

• New South Wales. Long Service Leave Act 1955. Full entitlement (2 months) after 10 years. Pro-rata on termination after 5 years where the employer ends your employment (other than for serious misconduct) or you leave for illness, incapacity or domestic necessity. Enquiries and enforcement: New South Wales Industrial Relations; claims in the Local Court or Industrial Relations Commission.
• Victoria. Long Service Leave Act 2018. Entitlement accrues from 7 years and is paid out on termination for any reason after 7 years. Enforcement: Wage Inspectorate Victoria; Magistrates’ Court.
• Queensland. Industrial Relations Act 2016, LSL provisions. 8.6667 weeks after 10 years. Pro-rata after 7 years where the employer ends employment (not for conduct) or you leave for illness, incapacity, domestic or other pressing necessity. Enforcement: Office of Industrial Relations; Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.
• Western Australia. Long Service Leave Act 1958. 8.6667 weeks after 10 years. Pro-rata on termination after 7 years (other than for serious misconduct). Enforcement: WageLine (Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety); Industrial Magistrates Court.
• South Australia. Long Service Leave Act 1987. 13 weeks after 10 years. Pro-rata on termination after 7 years. Enforcement: SafeWork South Australia (LSL enquiries); South Australian Employment Tribunal.
• Tasmania. Long Service Leave Act 1976. 8.6667 weeks after 10 years. Pro-rata after 7 years where employment ends for reasons other than serious misconduct or resignation without cause. Enforcement: WorkSafe Tasmania; Magistrates Court.
• Australian Capital Territory. Long Service Leave Act 1976. Entitlement after 7 years. Pro-rata on termination after 5 years in prescribed circumstances. Enforcement: WorkSafe ACT; Australian Capital Territory Magistrates Court.
• Northern Territory. Long Service Leave Act 1981. 13 weeks after 10 years. Pro-rata on termination after 7 years. Enforcement: NT Consumer Affairs (long service leave); Local Court.

Portable LSL schemes (construction, cleaning, security, community services in several states) operate separately. The Claim Done document asks your state first and drafts the entitlements schedule to that state’s LSL Act.

What to do right now

1. Get the three documents. Your start date (contract or first payslip), your final payslip, and the award or agreement that covers you.
2. Build the schedule. Line by line: redundancy weeks from the s 119 table, notice weeks (plus the over-45 week), annual leave hours and loading, LSL under your state Act, super, any unpaid hours or commissions. Total it, subtract what was paid, and that’s the demand.
3. Test the exemptions. Count heads across the business on the day of the redundancy, including regular casuals and related companies. Check the award for a redundancy clause that applies regardless of size.
4. Don’t sign a deed for the wrong number. A deed of release signed for less than your statutory minimum is generally still enforceable against you as a settlement, so get the figure right first.
5. Send a written demand with the schedule attached. Give 14 days, and name the two escalation routes below.

“Genuine redundancy” and what it doesn’t change

Employers use “genuine redundancy” as if it were a discount code. It isn’t. Genuine redundancy is a defence to an unfair dismissal claim; it has nothing to do with how much redundancy pay you’re owed. If the job genuinely no longer exists and the employer consulted under the award, the dismissal is fair, and you are still owed every week on the s 119 table. Conversely, if the “redundancy” was really a way of removing you, and someone is doing your job next month, you may have both an entitlements claim and a general protections or unfair dismissal claim, each with its own time limit (21 days for the latter).

Who to complain to

Fair Work Ombudsman for a request for assistance (free; it can recover NES entitlements and recovered more than $450 million for workers in 2025-26). Federal Circuit and Family Court small claims (Form 3) for underpayments up to $100,000, with no costs orders against you in the ordinary course. ATO for unpaid super (lodge an unpaid super enquiry; the ATO pursues it). For long service leave, the state body listed above.

Demand the shortfall with the calculation attached — $49

Stop reading. Start doing. Claim Done drafts a Final Pay and Redundancy Claim to your employer that sets out every entitlement line by line against the NES and your state’s LSL Act, states the shortfall, gives 14 days to pay, and names the FWO and small-claims routes you’ll take if they don’t.

Claim My Redundancy Shortfall — $49 →

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