Unions have welcomed recommendations in a government-commissioned review of safety regulations addressing s-xual assault and harassment in WA's mining industry, but have expressed dismay at evidence that employers are deliberately failing to report incidents to regulators.
Senior FWC member shifts to court; Respect@Work Act receives Royal Assent; Labor to scrap AAT; and FWC changes Annual Wage Review timetable, revises refund policy.
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.
The Federal Court has refused an extension of almost three years for a former Cricket Tasmania receptionist to pursue allegations that former Australian test cricket captain Tim Paine and other Cricket Tasmania employees s-xually harassed her between 2015 and 2017.
S-x Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins has defended a proposed shift to "cost neutrality" in s-xual harassment cases, where there is a default position for the parties to pay their own legal costs.
Victorian courts have vowed to tackle the "open secret" of s-xual harassment, endorsing recommendations that include actively identifying judicial officers known or suspected of such behaviour and "taking steps" to protect vulnerable staff from them.
