WA Public Sector Employees

If you work for a WA government department, agency, public hospital or health service, or a public school, your employment disputes are dealt with by the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission (WAIRC) under special rules. Since 31 January 2025, the Public Service Appeal Board and the Public Service Arbitrator no longer exist for new matters; their work has moved into the WAIRC.

Which route you use, and how long you have, depends on exactly what decision was made and which section of the Public Sector Management Act 1994 (WA) (PSM Act) your employer relied on. Some decisions cannot be challenged at all. This page walks through them.

What Changed on 31 January 2025

The Industrial Relations Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (WA) abolished the Public Service Appeal Board and the Public Service Arbitrator from 31 January 2025. Their work passed to the WAIRC's general jurisdiction under Part II Division 2AA of the Industrial Relations Act 1979 (WA) (IR Act). The Board still finishes appeals that were started before that date.

Two things changed for employees. Government officers can now be awarded compensation for an unfair dismissal, where before only reinstatement was available. And since 1 July 2025 the WAIRC can hear claims that an agency breached certain public sector standards, which previously went only to the Public Sector Commissioner.

If you are reading an older decision or article that sends a public sector matter to the Public Service Appeal Board, the forum is out of date, although the Board's reasoning on issues like proving misconduct can still be useful.

Who Is Covered

• Departments and public sector bodies under the PSM Act.
• Health service employees (the metropolitan and country health services and similar bodies) are employed under the Health Services Act 2016 (WA), which has its own parallel discipline rules.
• Department of Education staff, including teachers, whose discipline is governed by the PSM Act through the School Education Act 1999 (WA).
• Police, prison and youth custodial officers have their own removal appeals (see below).
• Local governments are not part of the public sector. Council employees use the ordinary WA state system claims. See the section on local government CEOs below and Am I in the State or Federal System?.

Discipline: What the Employer Must Do

A breach of discipline under PSM Act s 80 includes disobeying a lawful order, breaching the PSM Act, a public sector standard or the Code of Ethics, misconduct, negligence or carelessness, and victimising a whistleblower.

When your employer becomes aware of a possible breach, it decides whether to deal with it as a disciplinary matter, take improvement action, or do nothing (PSM Act s 81). If it goes down the disciplinary path, the Public Sector Commissioner's Instruction on discipline requires, among other things:

• written notice of the allegations in enough detail for you to know what is alleged, and that the outcome could range from counselling to dismissal;
• a reasonable opportunity to respond, in person or in writing, and genuine consideration of your response;
• the option of a support person or representative at meetings;
• written notice of any finding within 14 days, the action proposed, and an opportunity to respond to the proposed action before it is taken.

Check your letters against these steps. A failure to follow them can give the WAIRC grounds to set a decision aside.

Disciplinary Action or Improvement Action? It Matters

The word your employer uses decides whether you can challenge it.

Disciplinary action (can be referred to the WAIRC)	Improvement action (cannot be referred)
A reprimand	Counselling
A fine (up to 5 days' pay)	Training and development
Transfer to another body or position	A warning that conduct or performance is unacceptable
Reduction in pay	Similar action to improve performance or conduct
Reduction in classification (demotion)
Dismissal

So a reprimand can be challenged in the WAIRC, but a warning cannot (PSM Act ss 3(1), 78, 80A). Read your outcome letter closely.

Substandard Performance

Your performance is substandard only if you do not reach or keep up a standard that a person can reasonably be expected to meet in the role, measured against your job description, selection criteria and written work standards (PSM Act s 79). If you do not admit the performance is substandard, your employer must investigate before forming that view. The possible outcomes are withholding an increment (which cannot be referred to the WAIRC), a reduction in classification, or termination (both of which can).

Ordinary performance reviews are different. A complaint about how a routine performance review was run is a breach of standards claim, not a disciplinary referral.

Suspension

Your employer can suspend you on full pay, partial pay or without pay once it has decided to start a disciplinary process, or if you are charged with a serious offence (PSM Act s 82). You can challenge a suspension on partial pay or without pay in the WAIRC within 28 days. A suspension on full pay cannot be referred by you individually, although your union can raise it as an industrial dispute (Edoo v South Metropolitan Health Service [2026] WAIRC 00825, Full Bench, on the parallel health service rules). If a disciplinary process drags on while you are suspended, raise the delay with your union and with us.

Challenging a Disciplinary or Performance Decision

Disciplinary action, a demotion or dismissal for substandard performance, and a suspension without full pay are "industrial matters" under PSM Act s 78. You refer them to the WAIRC under IR Act s 29(1)(i) on Form 5, within 28 days after the decision or finding.

How the WAIRC hears it. First-instance decisions have treated these referrals as a fresh hearing: the WAIRC decides for itself whether the misconduct happened, and can substitute its own decision, while still giving weight to the employer's (Hinkley v Director General, Department of Communities [2026] WAIRC 00350). No appeal court has yet confirmed that approach, and a later decision applying it is under appeal. If you deny the misconduct, this route is generally the stronger one on the current decisions.

Which route for a dismissal. A dismissal for a breach of discipline or substandard performance goes under s 29(1)(i). Where it is unclear whether your dismissal was made under the disciplinary provisions, the safer course is to plead the ordinary unfair dismissal route, s 29(1)(c), in the alternative. No decision has yet settled whether both are open for a dismissal after 31 January 2025.

What you can get. If the WAIRC finds the dismissal was harsh, oppressive or unfair, its remedies are those in IR Act s 23A: reinstatement, re-employment, or compensation of up to 6 months' remuneration (IR Act s 23(4)). For other disciplinary decisions, the WAIRC can quash the decision, send it back to the employer, or direct that the process restart at a particular stage where the employer did not follow a Commissioner's Instruction or procedural fairness (IR Act s 36AG).

Health service employees use s 29(1)(j), not s 29(1)(i). The Health Services Act has its own list of referable decisions in s 171, which mirrors the PSM Act list and also includes an alteration of your scope of practice. The WAIRC has held that health service employees cannot use the PSM Act route, and that finding stood when the Full Bench dismissed the appeal (Edoo). Filing under the wrong paragraph risks having the application dismissed.

Teachers. Teaching staff are brought under the PSM Act discipline rules by the School Education Act 1999 (WA) s 239. Which referral route suits a teacher's disciplinary dismissal has not yet been tested under the new system, so a teacher should plead both routes.

Other Dismissals

A public sector dismissal that is not disciplinary or for substandard performance, such as ending employment during probation, at the end of a contract or for ill health, is an ordinary unfair dismissal claim under IR Act s 29(1)(c), within 28 days after the day employment ended. See Unfair Dismissal in the WA State System.

A chief executive officer of a department has no WAIRC route for a disciplinary matter (PSM Act s 52).

Breach of Public Sector Standards Claims

The Public Sector Commission sets seven public sector standards in human resource management. Since 1 July 2025, a claim that your agency breached one of these five standards goes to the WAIRC if it is not resolved internally:

• Transfer;
• Performance Management;
• Redeployment;
• Termination (covering resignation, retirement, ill-health retirement, end of a fixed-term contract and severance);
• Grievance Resolution.

The other two are different. A breach of the Recruitment standard (selection, appointment, secondment and acting) goes only to the Public Sector Commissioner, and the WAIRC has no jurisdiction over it (IR Act s 23(2a)). There is no claim at all for a breach of the Discipline standard; you challenge the disciplinary outcome itself under s 29(1)(i) instead (PSM Act s 96).

How a standards claim works:

1. Lodge a written claim with your agency, stating your grounds. For a grievance outcome, within 10 business days after being told of your right to claim. For other decisions, within 10 business days after you first became aware of the decision, or 30 business days after the decision, whichever comes first (Public Sector Management (Breaches of Public Sector Standards) Regulations 2005 (WA) reg 7). Late claims need the Commissioner's written approval.
2. The agency has 21 days to try to resolve it (IR Act s 36AJ; reg 10).
3. If it is not resolved, refer it to the WAIRC on Form 24 within 28 days after that 21-day period ends (IR Act s 29(1)(l), s 29(2)(d)).

The WAIRC can quash the action, send the process back to start again, or direct specific steps, but it cannot award compensation (IR Act s 36AL). A standards claim is about the fairness of the process, not whether you should have got a different outcome. Every step must be completed in time: in Neskovic v Child and Adolescent Health Service [2026] WAIRC 00185, a grievance resolution claim failed because no grievance had first been lodged. See the WAIRC's guide.

Redeployment and Redundancy

Public sector redundancy follows a statutory scheme in PSM Act Part 6 and the Public Sector Management (Redeployment and Redundancy) Regulations 2014 (WA), which overrides awards and contracts. In outline:

1. Notice and consultation that your position may be abolished or you may be surplus.
2. Transfer within your department to an equivalent position, if one exists.
3. Voluntary severance may be offered, with at least 8 weeks to decide. It is 3 weeks' pay for each complete year of continuous service (4 weeks for one to two years' service), capped at 52 weeks, plus an incentive of up to 12 weeks if you resign quickly, and your long service leave paid out. There is a bar on being re-employed in the public sector for the number of weeks paid.
4. Registration as a redeployee, with at least 14 days' written notice. You then have priority access to suitable vacancies, and salary maintenance for 6 months if you accept a lower-paid role.
5. The redeployment period is 6 months from registration. If you are not placed by the end of it, your employment ends automatically, with redundancy pay calculated under the regulations.

A position is "suitable" only if it fits your experience and skills, does not require you to move house, and pays between 80% and 110% of your former maximum (PSM Act s 94(6); reg 7).

Interpretation and Reclassification

• A public service officer can ask the WAIRC to decide whether the employer has correctly interpreted a conditions of service provision in the PSM Act, within 28 days of the decision (IR Act s 29(1)(g)). This covers interpretation only, not how a discretion was exercised.
• A government officer can ask the WAIRC to reclassify their position, or challenge the downgrading of a vacant office (s 29(1)(h)). There is no statutory time limit, but the WAIRC expects you to act within a reasonable time. Reclassification is decided on a strict work-value test, it can be backdated only to when you gave your employer enough information to decide, and there is no appeal from the decision (ss 36AD, 36AE).

Teachers are not "government officers" for these purposes, so these two routes are not available to them.

Local Government CEOs and Senior Employees

Council employees are in the WA state system but outside the PSM Act. A dismissed council CEO or senior employee uses the ordinary unfair dismissal and contractual benefits claims, within 28 days for unfair dismissal, subject to the salary bar: no claim if no award or agreement covers you and your salary is above $212,800 (from 1 July 2026).

The Local Government Act 1995 (WA) adds important rules:

• a CEO must not dismiss a senior employee unless the council has been told of the proposal and accepted it (s 5.37); the Full Bench applied this rule in Trestrail v City of Karratha [2025] WAIRC 00820;
• a CEO's employment can only be ended by an absolute majority resolution of council, with reasons, and a performance-based termination must follow a performance review within the previous 12 months and an opportunity to remedy the issues (Local Government (Administration) Regulations 1996 (WA) Schedule 2);
• CEO and senior employee contracts must be in writing, include an expiry date and performance criteria, and run for no more than 5 years (s 5.39).

Police, Prison and Youth Custodial Officers

Police officers, prison officers and youth custodial officers who are removed from office appeal to the WAIRC under their own Acts (Police Act 1892 (WA) s 33P, Prisons Act 1981 (WA) s 106, Young Offenders Act 1994 (WA) s 11CH), on Form 8C within 28 days of the decision (WAIRC guidance).

These appeals are harder than an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. You carry the burden throughout of showing the removal was harsh, oppressive or unfair; the WAIRC reviews whether the decision-maker's loss of confidence had a sound basis rather than rehearing everything; and the public interest in confidence in the police or prison service weighs heavily. Your written grounds of appeal define what the WAIRC will decide, so draft them carefully. If reinstatement is impracticable, compensation can be up to 12 months' salary.

A probationary prison officer who is discharged does not use the removal appeal and can bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim (Hinder v Western Australian Department of Justice [2022] WAIRC 00189).

What to Do Now

• Find the section your employer relied on in its letter, and the date of the decision.
• Work out which of the deadlines above applies, and diary it.
• Check whether the outcome is "disciplinary action" or "improvement action".
• Keep every letter, email and meeting note from the process.
• Talk to your union, if you are a member, as some routes are open only to unions.
• If you are being redeployed, do not let 21 days pass on a decision you disagree with.

How MKI Legal Can Help

Public sector disputes turn on precise statutory routes and very short deadlines, and the rules changed significantly in 2025. We act for WA public sector employees, including health, education, police and prison staff, and for local government employees, in disciplinary referrals, standards claims, redeployment disputes and unfair dismissal claims. Contact us for a free, no-obligation and confidential discussion about your circumstances.