Fair Work Commission orders Staples to reinstate four employees

Staples has been ordered to reinstate four employees after a Fair Work Commission decision found the employees had been unfairly dismissed.

Staples decided to reduce the number of the warehouse's permanent staff in July 2016 due to a budget blowout in 2015, when the warehouse was $1 million over budget and continuing to underperform in 2016.

In July 2016 the Erskine Park site employed 60 permanent warehouse staff. The company decided to cut 12 employees considering staff costs accounted for 60 percent of the warehouse's total operating costs.

Employees were offered redeployment but, according to Staples' representative, the employees "simply did not have the qualifications or skills to perform any of the positions which had been identified as potentially available".

The employees' representative argued that Staples approach to redeployment was "little more than a fig leaf", as there was no realistic or practical exploration of redeployment options.

Commissioner Ian Cambridge said that Staples' approach to consultation for the redundancies was "unduly hasty and largely tokenistic".

"Staples management did not engage in genuine or meaningful consultation with its employees and their representatives, but instead made disingenuous gestures which it sought to portray as consultation," Cambridge said.

Staples declined to comment.

In December 2016, Staples hired 19 new warehouse staff with the new hires engaging in the jobs previously made redundant.

Staples had to comply with its Staples Enterprise Agreement 2014-2016 in which the company committed to hiring full-time and part-time staff during the period.

The commissioner said: "Consequently, the dismissals of the applicants were not cases of genuine redundancy and the dismissals were harsh, unreasonable and unjust."

Commissioner Cambridge decided that the reinstatements of the applicants would be appropriate and that consequential orders for maintenance of continuity of employment, and restoration of lost pay should also be made. "The Orders also require a reduction from the amount calculated to represent lost pay, of any amounts paid to the applicants as redundancy entitlements."

Staples employs 1700 people across its 31 sites across Australia. Headquartered in Mascot, Sydney, the company runs a distribution centre in Erskine Park, Sydney.