Working in WA? Check which system you're in.

Not-for-profits can go either way. An incorporated body is in the federal system only if it is a trading corporation — one whose trading is a substantial, not merely peripheral, part of what it does. Charities that sell goods, charge fees or win contracts have been found to trade. Services funded by accountable government grants and provided free have been found not to. It is decided on the facts, as at the date the claim is filed.

Councils moved on 1 January 2023. From that date, 137 WA local governments and 8 regional local governments named in the regulations left the federal system, whether or not they trade. A council dismissal before that date was a Fair Work Commission matter.

Labour hire. If you were placed by an agency or a group training organisation, the agency is your employer — so it is the agency's entity you check, not the host's.

The $212,800 figure is the WAIRC Registrar's figure from 1 July 2026, published as a guide — the Commission decides. It only matters if no award, industrial agreement, Commission order or employer-employee agreement covers your job. If one does, there's no income bar at all.

There is no WA general protections regime. The WA Act protects you against damaging action for asking about or complaining about your pay and conditions, and against sham contracting, but not against adverse action for workplace rights generally. The federal substitutes are the unlawful termination claim and the discrimination laws, below.

• Notice of termination. The WA minimum conditions contain no notice entitlement. The Fair Work Act's notice scale applies to you through s 759: 1 to 4 weeks depending on service, plus a week if you're over 45 with at least 2 years' service. Casuals, fixed-term and seasonal employees and serious misconduct dismissals are excluded, and a longer period in a WA award or agreement applies instead.
• Unpaid parental leave (s 744) and 10 days' paid family and domestic violence leave (s 757B).
• Unlawful termination (s 772). You can't be dismissed for a reason on the Act's list. It includes temporary absence for a prescribed illness or injury, union membership or activity, filing a complaint against the employer about a breach of the law, absence on parental leave, and attributes such as race, sex, age, disability, pregnancy and family or carer's responsibilities. The employer must prove the reason wasn't a prohibited one. The limit is 21 days, to the Fair Work Commission — and lodging it engages the bar on the WA claim described above.
• Sexual harassment in connection with work — the Fair Work Commission's view is that the Fair Work Act's Part 3-5A reaches WA state-system workers too, alongside the WAIRC's own sexual harassment jurisdiction. Lodging in one forum can close the others for that allegation, so where you lodge first matters. See WA bullying and sexual harassment.
• Discrimination — you can complain under the Equal Opportunity Act 1984 (WA) (12 months, damages capped at $40,000) or the federal discrimination Acts through the Australian Human Rights Commission.
• Superannuation guarantee applies to every employer.

Older decisions and guides call the unfair dismissal claim s 29(1)(b)(i) and the contractual benefits claim s 29(1)(b)(ii). Since 20 June 2022 they have been s 29(1)(c) and s 29(1)(d), and s 29(1)(b) now means something else (equal remuneration). Anything that sends a new public sector matter to the Public Service Appeal Board is out of date.