NAB's 2,500 Job Cuts: Your Rights If You're Told to Reapply for Your Own Job (Spill and Fill)

On Tuesday 20 October 2026 National Australia Bank told the ASX it would cut up to 2,500 roles, about 6 per cent of its workforce, with around 1,500 going before the end of 2026 and the rest by June 2027 (ABC News, 20 October). The bank put the restructuring cost at roughly $300 million, said corporate roles would bear the brunt with no material impact on customer-facing banking roles, and said it would also use fewer consultants and contractors. More detail is expected with its full-year results on 5 November 2026.

Two days later the ABC reported accounts from NAB staff who said entire teams were being asked to reapply for a smaller number of positions, that one technology team had a two-week consultation period with last days of 2 or 17 December, and that a leaked plan for that team would cut it from just under 500 people to 400 by FY27 while lifting the share of roles in India and Vietnam. NAB declined to comment on the staff claims. Those are employee accounts as reported, not findings, and nothing in this post suggests NAB is acting unlawfully. The questions they raise are the ones every worker in a restructure asks, so here are the rules.

A spill and fill declares a group of existing positions vacant ("spills" them) and invites the incumbents, sometimes with outsiders, to apply for a smaller set of new positions ("fills" them). People who miss out are made redundant. It is a recognised restructuring method and the Fair Work Commission has accepted it in principle where a reorganisation genuinely reduces the number of similar positions. It is also where redundancy law most often goes wrong, because the employer has to show three things at once: the old jobs are genuinely gone, it consulted properly, and it looked for redeployment.

You cannot be forced to apply. Declining to apply for a new role is not, by itself, a resignation and does not strip you of redundancy pay. The practical risk is different: if the employer offers you acceptable alternative employment and you refuse it, the employer can ask the Commission under section 120 of the Fair Work Act to reduce your statutory redundancy pay. "Acceptable" is judged objectively on pay, hours, location, status and skills, so a role two grades down or in another city is unlikely to qualify.

Section 389 of the Fair Work Act sets the test. A dismissal is a genuine redundancy only if:

• the employer no longer requires your job to be performed by anyone because of changes in operational requirements, and
• the employer complied with any consultation obligation in the applicable award or enterprise agreement, and
• it would not have been reasonable in all the circumstances to redeploy you within the employer's enterprise or an associated entity.

If any limb fails, the dismissal is not a genuine redundancy and you can bring an unfair dismissal claim within 21 days of the dismissal taking effect (check your eligibility). Bank employees on enterprise agreements usually have detailed consultation and redeployment clauses that go further than the Act; the bank redundancy packages guide summarises what each of the big banks' agreements provides. Read your own agreement's consultation clause before the first meeting: it will say what written information you must be given and how long the process runs.

Offshoring is a common trigger for argument. Moving the same work to a team in another country can still be a genuine redundancy if no one in the employer's Australian enterprise is required to do the job. It is not genuine if the work continues locally under a new title, or if a suitable vacancy existed and you were not offered it.

On 14 October 2026 the Fair Work Commission ordered NRR Services Pty Ltd to pay a former mine surveyor $71,000.02 plus superannuation, 26 weeks' pay at $2,730.77 a week, the maximum the Act allows (HRD Australia, 15 October 2026). The worker had been made redundant in November 2025. In its earlier liability decision, [2026] FWC 1923, the Commission found the dismissal was not a genuine redundancy because an operator position opened at the company shortly afterwards and he should have been redeployed into it. He spent more than six months out of work and then earned about $1,800 a week less as a casual labourer. The company had an administrator appointed in May 2026 and did not contest the remedy hearing.

The point for anyone in a spill and fill: redeployment is not a courtesy, it is a limb of the legal test. If a role you could do is advertised in the weeks after you are told your job is gone, keep the advertisement. Our genuine redundancy challenge letter asks the employer, politely and in writing, for the consultation record and the redeployment search.

The National Employment Standards are the floor; a bank enterprise agreement will usually pay more.

• Notice (s 117): 1 to 4 weeks depending on service, plus 1 week if you are over 45 with at least 2 years' service. It can be worked or paid in lieu.
• Redundancy pay (s 119): from 4 weeks' pay after 1 year of service up to 16 weeks after 9 years, dropping to 12 weeks after 10 years because long service leave is assumed to start. The redundancy pay calculator applies the scale; small business employers (fewer than 15 staff) are exempt, which does not apply to a bank.
• Accrued leave: all untaken annual leave, with leave loading where it applies, and long service leave under the relevant state law or your agreement.
• Tax: for 2026–27 the tax-free part of a genuine redundancy payment is $13,598 plus $6,801 for each completed year of service, and the concessional ETP cap is $270,000 (ATO key rates). Ten completed years makes $81,608 tax-free. The redundancy tax calculator splits a package into its tax-free and taxable parts.

Before you sign anything, run the offer through Should I accept this redundancy package?, and check the Centrelink income maintenance period with the redundancy waiting period tool: a large payout can delay JobSeeker for months.

• Ask for the proposal in writing: which positions are affected, the selection criteria for the new roles, and the timetable. Award and agreement consultation clauses require the employer to give relevant written information and to consider your suggestions.
• Ask, in writing, what redeployment opportunities exist across the group, including associated entities, and that you be considered for them before external recruitment.
• Keep copies of every internal vacancy posted during and after the process.
• Do not resign to "beat" the restructure. A resignation forfeits notice and redundancy pay.
• If you are offered a lower-graded role, ask whether your pay will be maintained and for how long; the big-bank agreements have specific salary-maintenance periods for non-comparable roles.
• Diary the 21-day deadline from the day the dismissal takes effect. The Commission rarely extends it.

The Fair Work Ombudsman's redundancy pages and the Finance Sector Union, for members, can both answer questions before you commit to anything. This article is general information, not legal advice.