Workplace Discrimination

Workplace discrimination happens when a person is treated less favourably at work because of a protected attribute such as age, sex, race, religion or disability. It can be direct, like passing someone over for promotion because of their accent, or indirect, where a rule that looks neutral on paper disadvantages one group without good reason.

Australia regulates this through four federal Acts, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Age Discrimination Act 2004. Section 351 of the Fair Work Act 2009 sits alongside them and makes it unlawful for an employer to take adverse action against a worker because of a protected attribute. Every state and territory also runs its own anti-discrimination law, and the grounds covered are not identical, so what is unlawful in one jurisdiction may be handled differently in another.

Discrimination rarely arrives as one dramatic event. It usually shows up in recruitment shortlists, rostering decisions, who gets stretch work, whose ideas get repeated back without credit, and how complaints are handled once they are raised. That is why the practical controls matter more than the policy document. Clear standards of behaviour, a reporting channel people actually trust, managers who know how to respond, and a record of who has been trained do more to shift culture than a policy sitting on the intranet.

The articles tagged here cover the main forms of workplace discrimination, what they look like in real Australian workplaces, and what employers can do about them. The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national body that handles complaints under the federal Acts and publishes guidance for organisations. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory and change over time, so check what applies to your organisation.

To build the behaviours behind the law, see Sentrient’s equal employment opportunity course, workplace bullying course and code of conduct training, or see the full range of workplace compliance courses.