The Australian division of the OEM was ruled by the Fair Work Commission to have breached the terms of an employment agreement with a member of its workforce.
After 22 years with the company, former service technician Sham Kumar was made redundant in January, after Fuji Xerox decided to close its Alexandria, Sydney-based print workshop, CRN reports.
Kumar received a termination letter from Fuji Xerox Australia’s national Order Fulfilment and ANZ Manufacturing Manager, Patrick Dunn, who informed him that there were no open positions within the OEM equivalent to Kumar’s skills and seniority; however, he was welcome to apply for remaining available roles on a merit basis.
“We advised that you will now enter a redeployment period from today until 22 January 2018,” the letter read. “We advised that you will have the option to be considered for other redeployment opportunities, however, if we are unable to find you a suitable redeployment opportunity, then your role would cease for reasons of redundancy as on 15 January 2018 in which you would be eligible for a redundancy package.”
Now, Fair Work Commissioner Bernie Riordan has ruled that Fuji Xerox failed to consult with either Kumar or the National Union of Workers prior to the redundancy, which failed the consultative requirements of the employment agreement.
Riordan also found that the process of Kumar’s redundancy was based on a “subjective skills matrix,” which was flawed in its comparison of Kumar to his colleagues. Riordan added that Kumar was not consulted about the downsizing of the workforce.
“I find that Kumar’s termination was not a case of genuine redundancy,” the Commission ruled, “due to Fuji Xerox’s failure to consult in accordance with the agreement.”
Kumar will receive three weeks’ pay plus superannuation, atop the redundancy pay he has already received, which includes 86.7 weeks’ pay plus an additional 5 weeks’ notice. He has also been offered a three-month outplacement programme with Prima Careers.
