Your National Employment Standards (NES) redundancy pay — a set number of weeks by length of continuous service, paid at your base rate. Fair Work Act 2009.
NES minimum. Paid at base rate (excludes overtime, penalties, most allowances).
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| 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 (long service leave applies) |
Paid at the base rate of pay for ordinary hours (excludes overtime, penalty rates, bonuses and most allowances). Under 1 year = nil. Small-business employers (<15 staff) are generally exempt. Source: Fair Work Ombudsman — Redundancy pay.
Under the National Employment Standards, redundancy pay is a set number of weeks based on your length of continuous service: 4 weeks at 1 year, rising to a peak of 16 weeks at 9–10 years, then dropping to 12 weeks at 10+ years. It's paid at your base rate of pay for ordinary hours.
It's a deliberate feature of the NES scale. Pay peaks at 16 weeks for 9 to under 10 years, then falls to 12 weeks at 10+ years, because employees with 10 years become entitled to long service leave, which offsets the reduction.
Base rate of pay for ordinary hours — it excludes overtime, penalty rates, bonuses, commissions and most allowances and loadings. An applicable award or enterprise agreement can treat some allowances differently.
Generally no. Employers with fewer than 15 employees are exempt from NES redundancy pay, though a modern award or enterprise agreement may still impose an obligation.
No NES redundancy pay applies with under 12 months of continuous service, but you may still be owed notice of termination and payout of accrued annual leave.