Williams v City of Sydney [2019] NSWIRComm 1090

Industrial Relations Commission New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Williams v City of Sydney [2019] NSWIRComm 1090 Hearing dates: 28 October 2019 Decision date: 12 December 2019 Jurisdiction: Industrial Relations Commission Before: Commissioner Murphy Decision: Application dismissed Catchwords: UNFAIR DISMISSAL – review of business unit – restructure of operations – complaint of lack of consultation – termination of employment due to genuine redundancy – termination not harsh unreasonable or unjust Legislation Cited: Industrial Relations Act 1996 Local Government Act 1993 Cases Cited: Huseyin Arslan and others and Berkely Challenge (Commercial) Pty Limited and Others [2001] NSWIRComm 45 Outboard World v Muir [1993] 51 IR 167 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Rosbyn Williams (Applicant)

City of Sydney (Respondent) Representation: Applicant in person

Mr B Robson, Local Government NSW (Respondent) File Number(s): 2019/00232448

DECISION 1. The applicant, Rosbyn Williams, commenced employment as a Venue Officer in the Venue Management Unit of the respondent, City of Sydney ("City"), on 5 April 2016. On 9 May 2018, employees in the Venue Management Unit were advised that all aspects of that business unit were under review. As a result of that review, a revised business unit structure was developed and several positions, including the position held by the applicant, were identified as being surplus to capacity. This was announced to affected employees, including the applicant, at a staff meeting held on 7 May 2019. Present at that meeting were Peter Rugg, Manager, Venue Management, and Zoe Stanton, Senior Human Resources Business Partner, representing the City's management. 2. The applicant applied for other available roles within the respondent but his applications were unsuccessful. His position was made redundant with his last day of work being 5 July 2019 and he was paid redundancy entitlements in accordance with the provisions of The City of Sydney Wages/Salary Award 2017 ("City Award"). On 26 July 2019, the applicant filed an unfair dismissal application in which he claimed that his dismissal by the respondent was harsh.