The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act has received Royal Assent, stamping out pay secrecy clauses in new employment contracts, paring back MSD requirements and making it harder for employers to terminate agreements during bargaining, while the ABCC has entered a transition period ahead of its abolition.
The Human Rights Commission's latest survey of workplace sexual harassment shows little change in incidence over the past four years, while only two-thirds of workers reported their employer had anti-harassment policies and just one third had received training, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins told the National Press Club yesterday in a speech that also marked the first anniversary of her "Set the Standard" report on federal parliamentary workplaces.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has highlighted the positive duty imposed on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation under its Respect@Work legislation, which passed Parliament this afternoon.
The Albanese Government had dropped contentious "cost neutrality" provisions from its Respect@Work Bill and will refer the matter to the Attorney-General's Department, which will conduct a review.
Australia's largest tertiary education sector employer has commended the regulatory inclusion of s-xual harassment among instances of serious misconduct as having produced a "nuanced" shift wherein the emphasis is no longer on why perpetrators should be dismissed, but rather on why they "should not" be sacked.
The NT is planning to impose a positive duty on employers to eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, while it also intends to expunge an exemption that permits religious schools to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ teachers.
A proposal by Queensland's Palaszczuk Labor Government to remove gendered language from parental leave entitlements is the beginning of the end of "women" as a protected class at law and risks making mothers invisible, according to submissions on its IR Bill.
Victoria's Andrews Labor Government has today announced it is implementing recommendations from its workplace sexual harassment taskforce, including restricting the use of non-disclosure agreements.
The Albanese Government has the opportunity to take "bold and decisive action" to make workplaces safe and harassment-free, according to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC.
