Industrial Relations Act 2016

The employer must give each employee organisation of which any of the employees is a member an opportunity to consult with the employer on ways to—

avoid or minimise the dismissals; and

minimise the adverse effects of the dismissals, for example, by finding alternative employment.

The employer must do so as soon as practicable after making the decision to dismiss employees, but in any case before dismissing any of the employees.

If the employer does not give the organisation an opportunity to consult as required, the commission may make the orders it considers appropriate to put employees, and their organisations, in the same position, as nearly as can be done, as if the employer had done so.

The commission may make an order on application from an employee or organisation that is to be affected by the order.

Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to an organisation if the employer could not reasonably be expected to have known, at the time of the decision, that the organisation’s rules give it a right to represent the industrial interests of a dismissed employee.