New penalty payment and superannuation recovery powers for the industrial magistrate's court

Industrial Relations Amendment Bill 2026

1st House

2nd House

Law

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

The industrial magistrate's court can split civil penalties between multiple people; it can make them jointly liable for the full amount.
The court must pay penalties to the Treasurer, the applicant, or a directly affected person.
Employees are now considered directly affected persons for certain penalty payments.
The court can order unpaid superannuation contributions to be paid into a complying fund.
Compliance notices can now force a person to calculate and pay unpaid wages or superannuation.
The WA Branch of the AMA is now treated as an organisation of employees under the Act.
Actions taken by the Arbitrator, Board, Commission, or Registrar since August 2002 are confirmed as lawful.

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