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An employer had a right to make operational changes that led to a redundancy, even if the impacted employee considered them "bad, or wrong" decisions, the Fair Work Commission has held.

In an unfair dismissal claim brought by the former employee of jewellery chain Howley Group (trading as Pandora), Deputy President Gerard Boyce found that the company met the threshold for a genuine redundancy when it moved to abolish her role, seven months after creating it.

The employer had created a new full-time role of sales training officer in early 2022. The employee joined in March, to be responsible across the business for duties such as staff induction and training and transitioning new employees into sales roles.

In November, however, the employer notified her that her role would be made redundant because of a drop in sales and customer numbers in response to rising interest rates, prices and inflation...