Acting Premier Roger Cook insists there are no plans to sack WA public servants but he cannot say what will happen if the government does not get 3000 voluntary redundancies.
The teachers' and public sector unions criticised the state government last week, saying they had been told the Education Department was budgeting for 800 less salaries next year.
However only 282 people had volunteered to go.
The Health Department, which Mr Cook as health minister is responsible for, could involve more job cuts as it represents a massive 30 per cent of the budget. The department has been accused of being an inefficient bureaucracy with costs tripling in the decade to this year, well above the other states.
Mr Cook conceded finding the positions to go was not easy but said hard decisions had to be made and the department was on track to reach what the government is calling its "targeted voluntary severance scheme" number by March.
It would not involve frontline positions such as doctors, allied health or nurses and WA's health service would remain "world class", he said.
When asked if involuntary redundancies might might be necessary, he said "absolutely not" but the decision was ultimately up to Premier Mark McGowan, who returns this week from a trip to China promoting WA.
"No decision has been made in relation to compulsory severance, that is not part of what we do but this is a challenge," he told reporters.
"We've identified a large number of people that we need to downsize in relation to the public sector and it's tough work ... but we have to recalibrate our budget and we have to recalibrate our public sector workforce.
"I can rule it out, because obviously that's the responsibility of the premier as minister for public sector management, but I can say these are voluntary severances, we are not looking to cut people on an involuntary basis because we believe we can reach the result through that process."
However unions question how the government could achieve 3000 job cuts without some coercion. CPSU WA secretary Toni Walkington said the cuts contradicted the governments pre-election "WA Jobs" catchphrase.
