Human rights groups welcomes Respect at Work Bill passing

Several human rights and equality groups have welcomed the passage of the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 on Monday.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) and the Australian Human Rights Commission have both celebrated the passing of the bill.

The Respect at Work Bill implements seven recommendations from the Report, including to amend the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 to require federal public sector agencies to report to WGEA.

According to WGEA, the Respect@Work Report from Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins was a call to action for governments, businesses and the community to more effectively prevent and address workplace sexual harassment.

Mary Wooldridge, director at WGEA said the new legislation will enhance the Agency’s world-leading dataset.

“These reforms will expand the Agency’s remit to include more than 200,000 Australians who are employed by the Commonwealth government,” she said.

“The new legislation will provide gender equality workplace insights for federal agencies and enable detailed comparisons for the first time, within the federal public sector and between public and private sector employers.”

Kate Jenkins, national sex discrimination said the Respect@Work Bill is a major achievement that fundamentally changes how Australia protects people from workplace sexual harassment.

She explained, “It changes our settings from being reactive to also being proactive, so that employers are required to take meaningful action to prevent harassment from occurring.

“It shifts the emphasis from a complaints-based model to one where employers must take action, and continuously assess and evaluate whether they are meeting the requirements of the duty.”

Wooldridge said as a result of the passage of the Bill, mandatory reporting by the federal public sector will be required in 2023.

She explained, “In preparation, WGEA has worked with the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) to firstly pilot, and then undertake, a program of voluntary public sector reporting to the Agency. More than 50 federal agencies participated in the voluntary reporting program this year.

“We look forward to working with the APSC, Australian Public Service agencies and Corporate Commonwealth Entities and Companies, to implement this important reform to the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.”

The Respect@Work Report gave 55 recommendations to the federal government that ranged from understanding sexual harassment in the workplace, prevention outside the workplace, legal and regulatory framework, and preventing and responding to sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Commission, together with the Respect@Work Council, launched a new website earlier this month, respectatwork.gov.au, providing comprehensive information and resources to help businesses fulfil their obligations and create respectful workplaces, free from harassment.