No WA corrupt prison guard exodus: union

The West Australian Prison Officers Union has dismissed the corrective services minister's claim that new corruption laws have prompted guards to quit.

The no confidence powers allow Department of Corrective Services commissioner James McMahon to swiftly sack any officer he's lost confidence in for reasons of criminality, corruption or incompetence.

But WA Prison Officers' Union spokesman John Welch said the changes would not weed out any more corruption than previous laws.

"The suggestion that this has led to a raft of people like lemmings jumping off a cliff because they think they're about to be found out simply doesn't bear scrutiny," Mr Welch said.

"I don't know of anybody who has resigned as a consequence of these new laws coming in."

Mr Welch said the union believed corrupt guards should be weeded out, "but we had a disciplinary procedure before that did that".

"We're not talking about whether people should or shouldn't be dismissed, we're talking about what bureaucratic system do we use to determine whether people should or shouldn't be dismissed.

"The vast majority of cases will be dealt with under the Public Sector Management Act."