Recruitment and selection decisions - which are eligible for review?

A temporary vacancy

An agency needed to fill a vacancy on short-term basis, and invited employees to apply via an EOI process. 

An employee applied for the EOI and was not successful.

The employee applied to us for a secondary review of the decision (following an internal review by the agency), because they considered the agency's selection process was flawed, and did not follow the required policy. The employee considered they were the most suitable candidate and should have been appointed to the vacancy.

When we received this application, we assessed it and determined it was not eligible for review.

In cases were we can't conduct a review, we can suggest that the employee approach their HR team or the selection panel for further information and feedback.

The Review of Actions scheme provides that many actions relating to assignments of duties are not eligible for review. This is set out in Schedule 1 of the Regulations or Schedule 3 of the Determination.

What cannot be reviewed

This means that the following types of decisions cannot be reviewed:

• outcomes of internal temporary vacancies and EOI processes
• decisions to assign higher duties to an employee on a temporary basis
• most selection and recruitment decisions and processes
• assigning reasonable duties to an employee, such as the general day-to-day tasking of employees by their managers.

What can be reviewed

Some matters relating to an employee's duties, however, will be eligible for review. These include:

• reducing an employee in classification
• relocating an employee to another place
• assigning duties to an employee that are not reasonable.

There are also two types of promotion decisions that can be reviewed. These are:

• promotions from APS level 1 to APS level 6 (or equivalent), that are published in the gazette;
• promotions to Executive Level 1 or 2, that contain serious defects in the selection process. 

For APS level promotions, we review who had the most merit for the role. For Executive level promotions, we review the fairness and appropriateness of the selection process itself.