Ensure your company meets new Respect@Work legislation

The Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act 2022 (Cth) (‘the Act’) was recently passed.

This Act includes seven of the remaining recommendations of the 55 recommendations from The Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (2020) report.

The seven remaining recommendations include:

1.  Imposing a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, as far as possible.
2. Empowering the AHRC to  assess compliance with, and enforce, the positive duty.
3. Introducing cost protection for complainants under the AHRC Act.
4. Imposing reporting obligations upon Commonwealth public sector organisations under the Workplace Gender Equality Act.
5. Allowing representative groups such as unions to bring claims under the AHRC Act.
6. Prohibiting conduct on the grounds of sex that leads to a hostile work environment.
7. Giving the AHRC the power to implement inquiries into systemic discrimination.

Significantly, these changes will mean that:

• Subjecting a person to a hostile work environment on the grounds of sex will be illegal. This means that conduct such as displaying obscene or pornographic materials, general sexual banter, innuendo, and offensive jokes will be considered unlawful.
• A positive duty will be placed on all employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment, sex discrimination and victimisation. This means businesses must take proactive and preventative action to prevent sexual harassment from occurring in the workplace and may be found vicariously liable for not taking reasonable and practicable steps to do so.
• The AHRC will be granted powers to enforce compliance with the new standards, and wherever the AHRC reasonably suspects that a business is not complying, to inquire into and assess an employer’s compliance.

Consequences and risks to businesses that are not compliant

Businesses in breach may be subject to compliance notices, enforceable undertakings, and significant financial penalties. In addition, face severe reputational costs associated with failure to prevent workplace sex discrimination and victimisation.

What you can do to be compliant

These new legislative updates mean that all employers must act positively to prevent and respond to sexual harassment. Positive preventative measures include but are not limited to; implementing processes, policies, systems, and procedures and updating all previous training material.

New preventative measures ensure organisations are equipped to deal with sexual harassment complaints and staff are appropriately trained in the significant legislative changes.

Begin your training strategy today

These legislative changes impose a dramatic shift in responsibility on businesses, where they now have an active duty to ensure sexual harassment does not occur in the workplace.

Safetrac has introduced a Respect@Work Booster course, which will work alongside our existing courseware:

• Anti-Bullying and Anti-Harassment Course
• Equal Employment Opportunity Course
• Discrimination Prevention Course
• Sexual Harassment MicoLearn
• Appropriate Behaviour at Work Functions Booster
• Work Health and Safety
• Occupational Health and Safety

The new Respect@Work Booster is a short course, inclusive of the most recent updates only. This allows you to roll out your training faster, be compliant sooner and save re-training staff on all other topics.

We can work with you to customise any of our content to suit your specific business and staff needs. We can also assist you with scheduling training rollouts to assist your organisation in being proactive in this important topic.

To discuss any aspect of this new legislation or, any other compliance topic, please book an appointment today with one of our experienced compliance consultants.