Employers

Protect is the only severance scheme that offers your employees the choice of two account options including access to tax-free redundancy payments

Severance benefits

Severance benefits - Protect: Severance and Income Protection benefits

Protect is Australia's only industry severance scheme that offers employee members two severance account options including access to tax-free payments if their job is made redundant.

Protect members can choose to have their severance entitlement administered as either a:
When an employee member is first registered with Protect, the default severance option is a Protect Termination account. If an employee member chooses to have their severance entitlement administered as a Protect Genuine Redundancy account, this is an irrevocable selection.

Individual employee members need to complete a Protect Genuine Redundancy nomination form to select this account type. To obtain a copy of the nomination form, members should complete our enquiry form or contact Protect.

“Protect’s severance scheme provides individual employees with financial security. Our industry is very cyclical, when downturns happen employees know they can access their Protect severance and they will be okay until the next job comes along. The reality is that if you have a workforce that feels secure, that is a more productive workforce.”

Peter Smith, General Manager, PSG Elecraft

Termination account
If an employee member's severance entitlement is administered as a Protect Termination account, he or she will be eligible to claim a payment from their account if they:
  • leave a Protect employer for any reason - including if they resign, their contract ends, their job is made redundant or their employment is terminated
  • leave the industry, their new employer does not have an EBA obligation to Protect, or they are appointed to an above-Award position (not on the tools) by your new employer.
  • retire and are at least 55 years old or
  • die

Genuine redundancy account
Protect has worked hard to maximise the severance benefits payable to members whose jobs are made redundant. A Protect Genuine Redundancy account can increase the severance entitlement payable to an employee member by nearly a third.

But only if a member chooses this account option and their position is later made redundant by a Protect employer because the job is no longer required. Protect members must choose this account option prior to their position being made redundant and, once chosen, they cannot change their severance account type at a later date.

If an employee member's severance entitlement is administered as a Protect Genuine Redundancy account, he or she will be eligible to claim a payment from their account if they:
  • are less than 65 years old and their job is made redundant
  • retire and are at least 55 years old or
  • die

Genuine redundancy tax free limits
Protect's Genuine Redundancy account provides significant tax concessions if an employee member is dismissed because their job is no longer required:
  • the first $8,126* of a payment from a Protect Genuine Redundancy account is tax-free
  • plus an additional $4,064* is tax-free for each completed year of service

*Tax-free limits for 2010/11; the amounts are indexed at the start of every financial year. These tax-free limits do not apply if an employee's position is made redundant and they are more than 65 years old, they retire or they die.

More information
For more information about member severance entitlements, initial and subsequent claim requirements and applicable taxation rates, refer to information in the Protect members' section of this website including: