The redundancy process has begun at the Water Corporation and there is speculation job losses could run into the hundreds.
In Parliament on Thursday, Water Minister Mia Davies confirmed there had been 14 staff made redundant at the government water authority in recent months.
Public sector redundancies were flagged in October by Premier Colin Barnett as part of an exercise to tackle the state's slowing economy, with the Premier saying voluntary redundancies would be offered and he expected a high take-up.
The government has not provided any details about which government areas could be targeted for redundancies but there has also been speculation about redundancies in the health sector.
The job cuts are part of a wider reduction of government spending which aims to save the government $2 billion.
Ms Davies said three of those redundancies at Water Corporation had been formalised in September before the government's announcement about job losses.
She spoke about the redundancies in response to a question by Opposition water spokesman, Dave Kelly.
"There have been some announcements of redundancies in recent days," she said.
"Water Corporation is not immune to the circumstances that the state faces at the moment.
"It is continually looking at finding efficiencies in its business."
Ms Davies said the corporation was "constantly in conversation with its employees" about the process but could not put a number on the total amount of redundancies expected at Water Corporation.
Mr Kelly however said that he had spoken with a number of concerned employees of the corporation who understood there could be up to 300 redundancies from the Water Corporation.
"If these reports are true, job losses on this scale will have a huge impact on the Water Corporation's ability to deliver services to ordinary Western Australians and maintain its ageing infrastructure," he said.
Mr Kelly told Fairfax Media staff deserved to know the government's plans for offering redundancies and that the public deserved to know "how we are going to maintain service delivery". Ms Davies said job cuts would aim to create efficiencies, but not at the expense of important and critical jobs.
The job cuts are in addition to a 10 per cent cut to the operating subsidy paid to Water Corporation.
