Roadside mechanics win Fair Work claim against Madill car group

Six roadside mechanics whose jobs were made redundant have taken their case to the federal employment watchdog claiming they were owed payouts and entitlements.

Michael John Carroll, Benjamin Lettres, David William Jones, Johnnie Wayne Collis, Michael William Davidson and Scott Menzel took Madil No. 1 Pty Ltd to the Fairwork commission after their jobs were made redundant at the end of 2024.

Six roadside mechanics have won the right to redundancy pay after their former employer made their jobs redundant, and then tried to claim they had abandoned their redeployed jobs.

Michael John Carroll, Benjamin Lettres, David William Jones, Johnnie Wayne Collis, Michael William Davidson and Scott Menzel took Madill No. 1 Pty Ltd to the Fair Work commission after their jobs were made redundant at the end of 2024.

Published Fair Work documents said the six had been employed as roadside technicians, as part of a contract with the RACQ to provide the service.

The contract was ended by RACQ in December.

The documents said the six were informed of this two months earlier, in October, and that their jobs were being made redundant as a result.

Michael John Carroll, Benjamin Lettres, David William Jones, Johnnie Wayne Collis, Michael William Davidson and Scott Menzel took Madill No. 1 Pty Ltd to the Fair Work commission after their jobs were made redundant at the end of 2024.

The company offered the six redeployment across their network, which includes outlets it Gympie, Noosa and the Sunshine Coast.

This was declined by the six technicians who said as they had not resigned and as their positions were redundant they expected full redundancy payouts, the document said.

The company instead told them they had been transferred and failure to show up to work by December 10 would be taken as a resignation.

The company argued to the commission the six men had resigned and abandoned their work, but this was rejected by Commission Deputy President Nicholas Lake.

Published Fair Work documents said the six had been employed as roadside technicians, as part of a contract with the RACQ to provide the service. The contract was ended by RACQ in December.

Mr Lake found the contracts stated their jobs as “roadside technicians” and any changes required written mutual agreement.

There was a general clause which allowed them to perform other jobs “from time to time” but this could not be interpreted as a way to permanently assign the six into new jobs, Mr Lake said in his published decision.

He found the new jobs would have amounted to demotions owing to reduced weekly workloads and the loss of the technicians’ ability to earn bonuses from the sales of car batteries.

Mr Lake rejected the technicians’ claims the company had fallen short of consultation obligations, saying it fulfilled these in a November 2024 email outlining what was happening and the options available, and that their resignations were “forced” while noting the company’s “poor handling” of the matter led to their exit.

He found redundancy was owed but the commission did not have the power to order the company to pay it.

If the money was not paid out or if the company did not apply to vary the amount owed within one week, the technicians could pursue the matter through the courts, Mr Lake said.