Ongoing employment – Recruitment and related issues

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Frequently Asked Questions

10. What rights of review are there in relation to selection exercises?

The Act provides for a fair system of review of decisions taken in respect of APS employees (APS Value 10(o)).

Consistent with this, section 33 of the Act and Part 5 of the Regulations provide that a non-SES APS employee is entitled to review, under the Regulations, of an action that relates to his or her employment (which includes recruitment and selection decisions relating to that employee). This right of review is subject to certain exceptions set out in the Regulations, including:

action relating to the engagement of an APS employee
action taken by a Promotion Review Committee or an Independent Selection Advisory Committee
action relating to the promotion of an ongoing APS employee as an SES employee (whether or not the employee is already an SES employee)
action that determines under section 25 of the Act as to the duties of an APS employee, or the place or places where they are to be performed, unless the action involves one of the following—a reduction in classification; a relocation to another place; a promotion to an Executive Level 1 or 2 or equivalent classification level for which the employee was an applicant and there were serious defects in the selection process; or the assignment of the employee to duties that the employee could not be reasonably expected to perform.

The Regulations also provide for a review of certain promotion decisions involving promotion to a classification included in APS Classification Groups 2-6. Ongoing APS employees who are unsuccessful applicants for promotion to the relevant employment may apply to the Merit Protection Commissioner to have the promotion decision reviewed by a Promotion Review Committee. These promotion decisions can only be reviewed on the ground of merit.

Agencies should refer to Review of Employment-Related Actions in the Australian Public Service, Review of promotion decisions and other material issued by the Merit Protection Commissioner that is available on the Commission website.