THE CORPORATIONS LAW

CHAPTER 5 - EXTERNAL ADMINISTRATION

PART 5.6 - WINDING UP GENERALLY

Division 6 - Proof and ranking of claims

Subdivision D - Priorities

SECTION 558   DEBTS DUE TO EMPLOYEES  

558(1)  [Date of termination of employment]  

Where a contract of employment with a company being wound up was subsisting immediately before the relevant date, the employee under the contract is, whether or not he or she is a person referred to in subsection (2), entitled to payment under section 556 as if his or her services with the company had been terminated by the company on the relevant date.

558(2)  [Deemed employment after relevant date]  

Where, for the purposes of the winding up of a company, a liquidator employs a person whose services with the company had been terminated by reason of the winding up, that person shall, for the purpose of calculating any entitlement to payment for leave of absence, or any entitlement to a retrenchment amount in respect of employment, be deemed, while the liquidator employs him or her for those purposes, to be employed by the company.

558(3)  [Long service leave]  

Subject to subsection (4), where, after the relevant date, an amount in respect of long service leave or extended leave, or a retrenchment amount, becomes payable to a person referred to in subsection (2) in respect of the employment so referred to, the amount is a cost of the winding up.

558(4)  [Length of qualifying service]  

Where, at the relevant date, the length of qualifying service of a person employed by a company that is being wound up is insufficient to entitle him or her to any amount in respect of long service leave or extended leave, or to any retrenchment amount in respect of employment by the company, but, by the operation of subsection (2) he or she becomes entitled to such an amount after that date, that amount:

(a)  is a cost of the winding up to the extent of an amount that bears to that amount the same proportion as the length of his or her qualifying service after that relevant date bears to the total length of his or her qualifying service; and

(b)  shall, to the extent of the balance of that amount, be deemed, for the purposes of section 556, to be an amount referred to in paragraph 556(1)(g), or a retrenchment payment payable to the person, as the case may be.

558(5)  [Interpretation]  

In this section, ``retrenchment amount'', in relation to employment of a person, means an amount payable to the person, by virtue of an industrial instrument, in respect of termination of the employment.