The New Unfair Dismissal Jurisdiction in South Australia

Abstract

The transition in the South Australian jurisdiction over unfair dismissals has generated issues that challenge the future and directions of employment protection in Australia. The new provision, with its key remedial power of compensation in liett of reinstatement or re-employment, has in its practical operation approached far closer to the British model of statutory employment rights than any of its counterparts in the other states, and has further proved sufficiently flexible to generate entitlements to redundancy payments in a novel way. Many of the legal points raised in the decided cases to date reflect important aspects of definition, interaction with otherjurisdictions and employ ment policy generally; these include the definition of dismissal, the effect of alternative remedies on an unfair dismissal claim, the taxation of compensation awards and the significance of this type of legislation as a source of procedural (if not always substantive) fairness.