Respect@Work laws introduced: What you need to know

The Labor Government has now introduced the Respect@Work Bill (the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Bill 2022 (Bill)) to Parliament. If passed, the Bill will implement seven of the 55 changes recommended by Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, in her Respect@Work report (Report), which had not been implemented to date (see our previous article).

What will change?

The key changes arising from the Bill are:

• A positive duty on employers to actively take reasonable steps to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and victimisation at work.
• A prohibition against conduct that results in a hostile workplace environment on the basis of sex.
• Powers granted to the Australian Human Rights Commission to enforce compliance with the positive duty and inquire into systemic unlawful discrimination.
• Costs protections for complainants who bring claims under federal anti-discrimination laws, adopting a "cost neutrality" approach (i.e each party bears their own costs).

These changes (and others) will impact the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth) and Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.

Preparing your workplace

These changes are a significant enhancement of employers’ obligations and increase in the powers of the AHRC to achieve compliance. These reforms have been introduced in response to the acknowledgement that, to date, Australian workplaces have not sufficiently addressed sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation. It is unlikely that the steps historically taken, and relied on, by employers to date, such as annual training for all staff and workplace policies, are going to be sufficient to meet these new standards.

Lessons about what these reforms will mean can be taken from the Report and from other legislative frameworks that require employers to take “reasonable steps” to achieve workplace outcomes.

Employers should act now to ensure they are ready when the proposed changes come into force. This could take the form of:

• Undertaking risk assessments and audits, in consultation with workers, to identify and assess sexual harassment risk factors, and continuously evaluate workplace arrangements, conditions and culture.
• Updating a workplace risk register to include sexual harassment risks and control measures to address those risks.
• Comprehensive reviews of anti-discrimination and harassment policies and procedures including to outline procedures for reporting concerns and widespread communication of policies in relevant languages (i.e where the workforce comprises workers from non-English backgrounds).
• Ensuring employment, volunteer and contractor agreements contain a clause requiring them to comply with workplace sexual harassment policies, complaints protocols and codes of conduct.
• Proactive training and messaging for staff, including considering measures needed to promote a culture of intolerance of sexual harassment.

The Government has foreshadowed further legislative changes to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) to deliver all Respect@Work recommendations, including expressly prohibiting sexual harassment, enabling unions to bring sex discrimination claims on behalf of complainants, and establishing cost protections for complainants.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team who would be more than happy to discuss the proposed legislative amendments, and ways to prepare your business to meet these obligations.