Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsObjects
(1) The objects of this Part are to:
(a) deter avoidance of the payment of the entitlements of employees; and
(b) protect the entitlements of a company's employees from agreements, arrangements and transactions that avoid or prevent the recovery of those entitlements, or significantly reduce the amount of those entitlements that can be recovered, in the winding up of the company.
(2) The entitlements of an employee of a company that are protected under this Part are:
(a) wages payable by the company for services rendered to the company by the employee; and
(b) superannuation contributions (that is, contributions by the company to a fund or scheme for the purposes of making provision for, or obtaining, superannuation benefits (including defined benefits) for the employee, or for dependants of the employee) payable by the company in respect of services rendered to the company by the employee; and
(c) amounts due in respect of injury compensation in relation to the employee; and
(d) amounts due under an industrial instrument in respect of the employee's leave of absence; and
(e) retrenchment payments for the employee (that is, amounts payable by the company to the employee, under an industrial instrument, in respect of the termination of the employee's employment by the company).
(2A) For the purposes of subsection (2), an entitlement of an employee need not be owed to the employee. It might, for example, be:
(a) an amount owed to the employee's dependants; or
(b) a superannuation contribution payable to a fund in respect of services rendered by the employee; or
(c) a right in relation to an entitlement that becomes a right of the Commonwealth under paragraph 31(1)(b) of the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Act 2012 ; or
(d) an entitlement in relation to which an entity other than the employee has a right of subrogation.
(3) The entitlements of an excluded employee (within the meaning of section 556) are protected under this Part only to the extent to which they have priority under paragraph 556(1)(e), (f), (g) or (h).
(4) For the purposes of this Part, a person is an employee of a company if the person is, or has been, an employee of the company (whether remunerated by salary, wages, commission or otherwise).
(5) If an entitlement of an employee of a company is owed to a person other than the employee, this Part applies to the entitlement as if a reference to the employee included a reference to the person to whom the entitlement is owed.