Information for employees and applicants

If you believe that a decision made by the Department of Parks and Wildlife(DPaW) has breached one of the fivePublic Sector Standards in Human Resource Management listed below:

  • Employment, including recruitment, selection, appointment, temporary deployment (acting), secondment and transfer
  • Performance Management
  • Grievance Resolution
  • Redeployment or
  • Termination;

and that you have been adversely affected by the breach, you may seek redress by lodging a breach of standards claim.

Breach claims should be discussed and lodged with DPaW’s Manager, Workforce Services. Claimants should be as specific as possible in outlining why they believe a breach has occurred, with reference to the relevant standard.

Once a claim has been lodged, in the first instance, DPaWmustattempt to resolve the matter internally.If a written withdrawal has not been achieved within 15 working days DPaW must forward the claim to the Public Sector Commissioner.

Note that theCommissioner may decide not to deal with a claim if it relates to matters which the Commissioner does not have the power to deal with; is considered vexatious, frivolous, lacking in substance or not to warrant further action; has been or is being adequately dealt with already; or is solely about the competitive merit of the claimant.

Although the Public Sector Management (Breaches of Public Sector Standards) Regulations, 2005 require that DPaWonly provides notification about the regulations and standards torelevant personsforsome employment decisions and completed grievance processes, the regulations also require DPaW to take reasonable steps to ensure that information about these is made available to employees.

Information that is specific to particular standards is outlined below:

Employment Standard

With the exception of ineligible applicants who have not been considered for possible appointment to a vacancy and applicants who have withdrawn from the process, DPaW provides notification about the standards and regulations to all persons who apply unsuccessfully:

  • to fill a vacancy where the period of appointment is more than 6 months;
  • to fill a vacancy where the period of appointment is 6 months or less if the vacancy was advertised on the basis that the period of appointment could be extended beyond 6 months or become permanent; or
  • for selection to form part of an appointment pool.

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Department of Parks and Wildlife Guide to breach of Public Sector Standards claims – Information for employees and applicants

Only applicants who are notified in this way have the capacity to submit a breach claim with respect to a vacancy for which they have applied unsuccessfully. Such applicants havea timeframe of either 4or 10 working days (depending on circumstances) after it is reasonable to expect that notification of the selection decision would be received, in which to lodge a breach claim. The date by which any breach claim must be lodged is included in the applicant’s notification letter.

Except under special circumstances approved by the Commissioner, decisions relating to the Employment Standardarising from general or targeted advertising where applicants have breach rights cannot be progressed until the breach period has closed and any breach claims have been resolved.Note, however, that the selection of people to form part of an appointment pool can proceed after a breach claim is lodged, but there are restrictions on appointing people from the pool to fill vacancies until after any claims are finalised. In short, such appointments can occur, but there must be sufficient vacancies left unfilled to enable claimants to be considered for appointment to an appropriate vacancy if a breach is found.

DPaW may temporarily placea person in a vacancy in the short term while it is subject to the regulatory processes. However, the decision to do so must be made in accordance with the Employment Standard.

In the case of transfers that were not the result of an advertising or expressions of interest process, a person may lodge a breach claim only if their request for a transfer has been declined, or as the result of a DPaW-initiated transfer. The lodgement period is 10 days after the person first became aware of the transfer decision, or 30 days after the decision was made, whichever period expires first.

Grievance Resolution Standard

Under the regulations, DPaW is required to provide notification about the standards and regulations to any person

  • whose grievance resulted in a decision, and
  • who was the subject of the grievance.

The lodgement period is 10 days after the person was given notice of the decision.

Performance Management, Redeployment and Termination Standards

The lodgement period for claims made under each of the above standards is 10 days after the person first became aware of the decision, or 30 days after the decision was made, whichever period expires first.

Discipline Standard

In accordance with the Public Sector Management Act, 1994, breaches of standard procedures do not apply to the Discipline Standard. Please contact the Manager, Employee Relations on (08) 9219 8539 for further information on disciplinary matters.

Considering Lodging a Claim?

Should you be considering lodging a claim, please contact the Senior Consultant, Recruitment and Establishment for further information and to obtain a Breach of Standard Claim Form.

For all other queries related to the standards and the regulations, please email the Senior Project Officer at or contact the Senior Consultant, Recruitment and Establishmenton (08) 9219 8222.

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