Archive: Jul 1, 2025, 12:00 AM

Referral of breach of public sector standards claims to the Commission from 1 July 2025

The Industrial Relations Act 1979 has been amended to provide the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission (Commission) jurisdiction to deal with claims alleging a breach of a specified public sector standard from 1 July 2025.

 

A referral of a public sector standards claim to the Commission may be made by a person when:

 

There is a 28-day time limit to make a referral to the Commission.

The Commission may deal with the referral by conciliation and/or arbitration, and may: order that the decision/action of the public sector body be quashed; order that the process for taking the action be recommenced from the beginning or from a specific stage; direct the public sector body to take specific steps in the recommenced process; or order the public sector body to take specific action. Orders for compensation are not available.

Parties can be legally represented, and decisions are appealable.

Breach of public sector standards claims regarding recruitment, selection, appointment, secondment and temporary deployment (acting) decisions will remain referrable only to the Public Sector Commissioner.

For more information, please see here.