Maurice Blackburn's head of employment and industrial law, Josh Bornstein, says damages for discrimination and harassment "remain persistently low" but he expects an upwards trajectory as their impact has been "laid bare" and expectations are now clearer.
The NTEU is calling for urgent change, after its latest survey found that "s-xual harassment, s-xism, and gender-based bias in tertiary education workplaces continues to be largely ignored and as a result remains firmly entrenched in our universities".
Employers can comply with the new "positive duty" to eliminate sexual harassment and sex discrimination by fostering a respectful culture, ensuring workers have avenues to report incidents, and taking a "risk-based" approach to prevention, according to Human Rights Commission guidance.
The Albanese Government's third tranche of IR reforms will include a new protections for domestic violence victim-survivors against workplace discrimination, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke revealed this evening.
The Albanese Government has ratified ILO conventions setting a minimum working age and seeking to prevent workplace harassment and violence, with Skills and Training Minister Brendan O'Connor telling this year's international labour conference that tripartism "has never been so important".
FWC Deputy President Bernadette O'Neill will oversee the new system of expert panels for pay equity and the care and community sector, the tribunal's acting president announced today.
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.
