How To Handle Gender Discrimination In The Workplace

How to handle gender discrimination in the workplace, from the employer’s side, turns on a question asked too late. Who should run this?

The default is HR, and that is often wrong. HR represents the employer, holds the risk, and may later be involved in a formal process about the same facts. Where the complaint concerns a senior leader, or an HR decision itself such as a pay or promotion outcome, an internally run process will not look impartial however carefully it is done.

Three practical rules help. Never let the person who made the decision under complaint investigate it. Separate the facilitation role from the investigation role. And use an external investigator where the matter is serious enough that impartiality has to be visible rather than asserted.

The Australian Human Rights Commission covers employer duties. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s workplace compliance system and EEO training course.