Complexity of constituent authorities catches out employee

The Public Service Appeal Board (Board) has dismissed an appeal for want of jurisdiction, on the basis that it had no jurisdiction to hear the matter as the employee was not a public service officer and there was no appealable decision.

The employee was employed by the East Metropolitan Health Service (the Health Service) as a Level 2 Clinical Nurse Anaesthetic Research on a fixed term contract. At the end of the fixed term, and contrary to what the employee was led to expect, neither a further contract nor permanency was offered. The employee lodged an appeal to the Board under s 80I(1)(a) of the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) (IR Act) after having her complaint to the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administrative Investigations (Ombudsman) rejected. The Ombudsman rejected the complaint because it said the employee could seek a remedy in the WAIRC. The Health Service objected to the appeal, saying that the decisions being appealed against are not matters within the Board's jurisdiction.

The Board was required to determine whether the employee was a public service officer with standing to appeal a decision under s 80I(1)(a) of the IR Act. The Board found that she was not, and so the Board was without jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal.

The Board expressed sympathy for the employee for bringing her appeal to the Board it in the way that she had noting that it has been observed many times that the structure of the IR Act concerning its constituent authorities, particularly the Board and the Public Service Arbitrator, are overly and unnecessarily complex and confusing.

In this case, the confusion was also compounded by the information the employee received from Ombudsman.

The decision can be read here.