Dietzel and Secretary, Attorney-General's Department

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the entitlement of an applicant to a Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) advance for redundancy pay. The applicant had been employed by Verdicorp (Australia) Pty Ltd from 15 July 2010 until 14 May 2018, when his employment was terminated. The applicant sought a FEG advance for redundancy pay, which was not included in an initial advance granted by the Secretary, Attorney-General's Department.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant's contract of employment, specifically the "Standard Terms of Employment (Executive Status)," created an obligation for Verdicorp to pay redundancy to the applicant upon his termination. This required the Tribunal to interpret the relevant clauses of the employment contract and consider whether any redundancy policy or agreement was in place and legally binding.

The Tribunal found that the applicant was not entitled to redundancy pay. It determined that there was no operative redundancy policy within the meaning of Clause 19 of the Standard Terms of Employment, as a document presented by the applicant had not been adopted or agreed to by Verdicorp. Furthermore, any prior representations or agreements regarding redundancy were superseded by Clause 26 of the Standard Terms of Employment, which stated that the contract replaced all prior agreements. The applicant's own concessions in evidence supported the absence of a formal redundancy policy or agreement at the time of his termination.

Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not have an entitlement to a redundancy payment under the terms of his employment contract at the time of termination. Therefore, he was not entitled to a FEG advance for redundancy pay. The reviewable decision of the delegate was affirmed.