In recent years many Australian organizations have been forced to significantly reduce their staffing levels
to contain cost overheads. In many cases the lack of an effective, disciplined performance assessment system,
combined with minimally required and
legally
defensible
documentation, has often meant that organizations
have had only limited success in divesting themselves of their poorer performers without paying large sums
of money and/or creating serious adverse employee and union reactions. The remaining employees often view
these buyouts as a reward for poor performance unless they too have the same access to severance benefits.
As a result, the emphasis has been on early retirement or voluntary separation programmes with severance
payments geared to seniority.
