795Public sector employer to act through employing authority

795 Public sector employer to act through employing authority

Employer to act through employing authority

(1) For the purposes of this Act and the procedural rules, the employer of an employee (a public sector employee) employed in public sector employment must act only through the employee’s employing authority acting on behalf of the employer.

Acts done by or to employing authority

(2) For the purposes of this Act and the procedural rules, anything done by or to a public sector employee’s employing authority acting on behalf of the employee’s employer is taken to have been done by or to the employer (as the case may be).

Application of subsections (1) and (2)

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) apply despite any other law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory.

Meaning of public sector employment

(4) Public sector employment means employment of, or service by, a person in any capacity (whether permanently or temporarily, and whether full‑time or part‑time):

(a) under the Public Service Act 1999 or the Parliamentary Service Act 1999; or

(b) by or in the service of a Commonwealth authority; or

(c) under a law of the Australian Capital Territory relating to employment by that Territory, including a law relating to the Australian Capital Territory Government Service; or

(d) by or in the service of:

(i) an enactment authority as defined by section 3 of the A.C.T. Self‑Government (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988; or

(ii) a body corporate incorporated by or under a law of the Australian Capital Territory and in which the Australian Capital Territory has a controlling interest;

other than an authority or body prescribed by the regulations; or

(e) under a law of the Northern Territory relating to the Public Service of the Northern Territory; or

(f) by or in the service of a Northern Territory authority; or

(g) by or in the service of a person prescribed by the regulations; or

(h) under a law prescribed by the regulations.

(5) However, public sector employment does not include:

(a) employment of, or service by, a person prescribed by the regulations; or

(b) employment or service under a law prescribed by the regulations.

This subsection does not apply for the purposes of section 40.

Note: Section 40 deals with the interaction between fair work instruments and public sector employment laws.

Meaning of employing authority

(6) An employing authority of an employee is the person prescribed by the regulations as the employee’s employing authority.