Redundancy in Western Australia

The Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission has for many years now had the power to make General Orders. The Commission in Court Session may, on its own motion or on the motion of a privileged party, make a General Order which can apply to all employees throughout the State.
For example, the Termination, Change and Redundancy General Order prescribes the minimum entitlements for employees in Western Australia for the termination of their employment, a significant change to their employment or their being made redundant. It applies to all employees with the exception of those covered by the Salaries and Allowances Act 1975.
 
The National Employment Standards (NES) under the Fair Work Act 2009 provide a statutory entitlement to redundancy pay for an award and industrial agreement-free employees where the employer employs 15 employees or more, provided the employee has completed at least 12 months continuous service with the employer. However, under Sch 4 of the Fair Work (Transitional and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 (Cth), service prior to 1 January 2010 does not count for the purpose of calculating redundancy pay under the NES where an employee’s contract of employment does not, or never has contain(ed), a term relating to redundancy pay. Therefore, the employee’s entitlement to redundancy pay is determined by whether his contract of employment or a company policy provided for redundancy pay before 1 January 2010.
The staff of the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman routinely I am informed advise callers that unless they were employed under an award or a contract which provided for redundancy as at 1 January 2010, then the date from which redundancy is calculated is 1 January 2010. In my view this may very well be wrong in the case of employees in Western Australia.