Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) In this section
—
employee includes a person employed under a
contract for services;
employer includes a person acting on behalf of an
employer.
(2) For the purposes
of this section, an employer acts prejudicially against an employee if the
employer does any of the following —
(a)
terminates the employee’s employment;
(b)
ceases remunerating the employee;
(c)
reduces the employee’s remuneration;
(d)
otherwise acts so as to prejudice the employee in relation to his or her
employment with the employer;
(e)
threatens to take an action described in any of paragraphs (a) to (d).
(3) For the purposes
of this section, an employer who employs an employee under a contract acts
prejudicially against the employee because the employee has done or is doing
jury service if the employer —
(a) does
not pay the employee under the contract the earnings that the employee could
reasonably expect to have been paid while doing the jury service, despite any
breach of the contract caused by doing the jury service; or
(b)
threatens to do so.
(4) For the purposes
of this section, a person does jury service if he or she, having been required
under this Act to do so, attends at any place in order to serve, or does
serve, as a juror.
(5) An employer must
not act prejudicially against an employee because the employee —
(a) is
subject to a summons issued under Part VA or VB; or
(b) has
done or is doing jury service.
Penalty:
(a) for
an individual, a fine of $10 000;
(b) for
a body corporate, a fine of $50 000.
(6) If, in proceedings
on a charge of an offence under subsection (5), all the facts constituting the
offence other than the reason for the accused’s act are proved, the
accused has the onus of proving the accused’s act was not actuated
because the employee was subject to a summons issued under Part VA or VB or
had done or was doing jury service.
(7) A court that
convicts a person of an offence under subsection (5) —
(a) may
order the person to pay the employee a sum, set by the court, by way of
compensation for any prejudice (including lost remuneration) suffered by the
employee; and
(b) if
the offence involved the person terminating an employee’s employment,
may also —
(i)
order the person to re-employ the employee, either in his
or her old position or in a similar position; or
(ii)
if it is not practicable to make that order, order the
person to pay the employee compensation for loss or injury caused by the
termination;
and
(c) if
the person does not obey an order made under paragraph (b)(i), may order the
person to pay the employee compensation for loss or injury caused by the
termination.
(8) If under
subsection (7) the court orders compensation to be paid, the amount must be
set by the court but must not exceed the employee’s remuneration in the
12 months immediately before the date of the offence.
(9) An order made
under subsection (7) may be enforced under the
Civil Judgments Enforcement Act 2004 as if it were a judgment given in the
exercise of the court’s civil jurisdiction.
(10) This section does
not prevent proceedings against, or the punishment of, a person for contempt
of court but, if a person’s act constitutes both an offence under this
section and a contempt of court, the person cannot be punished for both.
[Section 56 inserted: No. 13 of 2011 s. 42.]
[Heading inserted: No. 12 of 2000 s. 10.]