The workers of Western Australia support the livelihoods and economy of this state. All workers have the right to a safe and healthy workplace, and the expectation that they will return home from work safe and well. Workplace laws must be fair and protect all workers from exploitation, unjust treatment and unsafe conditions; industrial laws should facilitate workers' agency and uphold the rights of workers to organise collectively to negotiate fair pay and conditions. The Greens (WA) supports the struggle for workers’ rights and strives for a society that backs the workers.
Aims
The Greens (WA) want:
- all workers to have a statutory protection of their rights including job security, and workers to be fully informed of those rights and employers of their obligations
- a workers' compensation system that is fair, balanced and efficient
- fair and equitable statutory conditions of employment that reflect the standards of a just society
- workplaces that are free from avoidable occupational and health hazards and promote a strong workplace health and safety culture
- workplaces that are free from discrimination, bullying, harassment and sexual harassment
- an Industrial Relations system that protects worker’s rights and conditions in a rapidly changing workplace environment
a strong, effective union movement capable of negotiating constructively for workers' rights and conditions
Measures
The Greens (WA) will initiate and support legislation and actions that:
Rights and Obligations
- deliver ongoing state funded education campaigns to inform employees of their rights and to ensure employers are aware of their obligations, including publication on related government websites and in the Government Gazettes, and advertised in mainstream media
- prohibit the practice of misusing contractor, casual and temporary appointments to fill positions that could be filled by fixed-term contracts, and to prohibit the practice of persistent fixed-term rolling contracts
- ensure statutory protection for workers categorised as subcontractors
- amend legislation to clearly define contractor, casual, temporary, fixed term and part time work with a view to preventing abuse of non-permanent appointments
- reduce the casualisation of the workforce and require that casual workers employed for 3 months are offered permanent work unless they are seasonal
- ensure all workers, including casual and gig workers, are afforded fundamental workplace rights and entitlements
- modernise the Industrial Relations Act to extend minimum wages and entitlement to Gig workers
- advocate for the Fair Work Commission to set minimum standards orders for all ‘employee-like’ workers
Compensation
- ensure a comprehensive award system that provides a genuine safety net of wages and conditions
- index wages, at a minimum, to local inflation, regardless of being covered by an award or registered agreement
- establish equal remuneration for work of equal value
- implement measures to close the gender pay gap particularly in highly feminised industries (see also The Greens (WA) Women policy)
- promote pay equity in all sectors of the workforce to ensure that all adult workers receive 100% of the adult rate of pay specified in the relevant award
- make employers pay superannuation each pay cycle, and ensure stronger penalties, including criminal, for deliberate underpayment or theft of wages and superannuation
Conditions
- ensure adequate statutory minimum conditions of employment
- ensure reasonable access to common law entitlements, including an evaluation of the impact of impairment assessments, and a revision of common law gateways
- encourage flexible work arrangements which provide for a better work/home life balance within the framework of permanent employment
- lift employment standards, and incentives to employ and appropriately develop, trainees and apprentices
- ensure a workers' compensation system that is paid for by reasonable employer premiums which take into account employer performance in providing a safe place of work and return to work programs for workers
- enable contractor, casual, and temporary workers to accrue sick, annual and long service leave across different employers
- extend sick and personal leave provisions to casual workers with no loss of casual loading
- add Gender Affirmation Leave into the minimum employment standards for workers, including access for casual workers (See LGBTQIA+ Policy)
- grant all workers a Right to Disconnect, granting them to right to refuse contact outside their working hours
- introduce the 100:80:100 model 4-day work week, or adequate compensation or other allowances for workplaces where this is not possible
- Increases entitlements for family and domestic violence paid and unpaid leave under federal and state agreements (See Family and Domestic Violence Policy)
Workplace Health and Safety
- make employers legally responsible for workplace death and injury
- provide support for employers who adopt best practice in workplace health and safety
- increase employment protection and retraining entitlements for injured workers to facilitate their return to work
- Discrimination
- ensure that sex workers have the same rights and respect as any other workers, and sex work organisations are consulted on changes to regulations (see also The Greens (WA) Sex Work policy)
- replace the 1984 Act with a modern Equal Opportunity/Anti-Discrimination Act that incudes broadened protected attributes in the workplace, clarifies coverage, and updates remedies, including:
- religious bodies (including schools) not permitted to discriminate in employment, or require proportionate/explicit, narrow exceptions only where strictly necessary.
- the Commissioner or a tribunal can initiate investigations into workplace discrimination without a complaint; issue enforceable orders; seek civil penalties for serious breaches; and award compensatory and declaratory relief.
- a statutory unit responsible for workplace equality audits, systemic investigations, guidance and compliance enforcement
- place a statutory duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate steps to prevent and respond to discrimination and harassment
Industrial Relations
- strengthen the protection of baseline conditions in WA industrial agreements
- phase out any form of statutory individual employment agreements in favour of collective agreements
- enacts an industrial relations framework and government policies promoting full employment and job security
- ensure that all share the economic gains arising from the evolving nature of work and employment relationships
- ensure a just transition of work, including reskilling and training, as emergent technologies, such as automation and artificial intelligence, impact the workplace
- provide an industrial relations system that provides for the timely and efficient resolution of disputes
- ensure the Industrial Relations system unambiguously recognises worker’s right to unconditionally withdraw labour at any time
- provide a strong, independent and accessible industrial relations tribunal, which must consider and specifically address the power imbalance between workers and their employers
- maintain and enhance an accessible and democratic Industrial Relations Commission to ensure the power imbalance faced by workers is addressed in the resolution of workplace issues, and with an enhanced capacity to award compensation over a broad range of industrial issues
Unions
- provide a comprehensive statutory framework protecting the right to collectively bargain, the role of unions to negotiate on behalf of workers and the right of workers to take industrial action
- support unions to adequately represent working in workforces and sectors that are predominantly a vulnerable or highly exploited social group
- ensure unions have right of entry to workplaces
- provide protections for workplace delegates to ensure they are not obstructed from their duties or punished for acting out their duties
- decriminalise wildcat and solidarity strikes
- require a bargaining/agency fee of all workers under all workplace bargaining agreements to incentivise unity and collective workplace power
See also the Australian Greens Employment and Workplace Relations policy
Workplace Relations policy ratified by The Greens (WA) in 2026
The Greens (WA) spokesperson for Workplace Relations is Tim Clifford MLC