In 2020, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins published the Respect@Work Report following the Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces in 2018.
In September 2021, the Australian Government implemented a suite of legislative reforms to sexual harassment laws under the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Act 2021 (Respect@Work Act). The Respect@Work Act as passed:
Notably, the Government did not adopt the Commissioner’s recommendation to introduce a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and victimisation.
As a separate workplace matter, the Respect@Work Act varied the existing entitlement to compassionate leave in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) to include miscarriage as a permissible basis for taking compassionate leave. This will enable an employee to take up to two days of paid compassionate leave (unpaid for casuals) if the employee, or employee’s current spouse or de facto partner, has a miscarriage before a gestation period of 20 weeks.
The second round of the Federal Government’s “Closing Loopholes” amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act) were passed by Parliament on 12 February 2024 and received Royal Assent on 26...
All employers should now have implemented measures to discharge their obligation to take reasonable steps to eliminate sexual harassment and other unlawful conduct in the workplace given the...
Following a deal with crossbench Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock, the Senate split the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023 (Bill). As a consequence, the first...