Protection Against Economic Dismissals: Australian Law Compared with Five Other OECD Countries

Abstract

This research note is based on a study carried out in 2007 for the Victorian Office of the Workplace Rights Advocate, updated to reflect more recent developments including the passage of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). The note analyses how the regulation of economic dismissals under Australian law compares with Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The six countries’ laws are ‘benchmarked’ against the following criteria: coverage of unfair dismissal protection; tests for determining the fairness of economic dismissals; procedural fairness requirements; employee rights to severance payments; and notice, information and consultation obligations of employers. The note finds that under the Coalition Government’s Work Choices legislation, Australia provided employees with weaker protection against economic dismissals than all of the other countries examined, except for the USA. However, the Labor Government’s changes to economic dismissals regulation mean that Australian law now ranks towards the stronger end of the spectrum of protection.