The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency has become the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (the agency) as part of the introduction of a more stringent framework for gender equality reporting introduced last year.

The Workplace Gender Equality Act (the Act) received royal assent on 6 December 2012 and will be phased in over the next two years. The Act makes significant changes to the gender equality reporting requirements for large private sector employers with more than 100 employees.

The requirement for employers to develop equal opportunity programs, which has been in place since 1999 under the former Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act, has been removed in favour of a more stringent requirement to report on "gender equality indicators".

The Act defines these indicators as the:

  • gender composition of the workforce
  • gender composition of governing bodies of relevant employers
  • equal remuneration between women and men
  • availability and utility of employment terms, conditions and practices relating to flexible working arrangements for employees and to working arrangements supporting employees with family or caring responsibilities
  • consultation with employees on issues concerning gender equality in the workplace, and
  • matters specified in a legislative instrument by the Minister.

The Minister will have broad powers to determine reporting requirements based on these indicators, after consultation with the agency. Importantly for employers, the Minister also has the power to set industry-specific minimum standards to achieve compliance.

Starting from the 2013/14 reporting cycle, employers are required to prepare a report (for the period spanning 1 April to 31 March each year) that provides details of their company and responds to gender equality indicator queries specified by the Minister. Once submitted, the reports may be made public by the agency, but they will not include personal information. Employers have been assured that information relating to remuneration will also not be published, however the Act allows publication where the information "is in an aggregated form and does not disclose, either directly or indirectly, information about a specific relevant employer or another specific person".

Employers are also required to provide employees and shareholders with the means of accessing the reports they submit. Employers must inform employees and relevant unions that a report has been lodged, and of the opportunity to provide comments on the report to the agency.

Of particular interest to large employers will be the compliance mechanisms introduced under the Act. An employer will be non-compliant under the Act if it fails to:

  • lodge a public report on time
  • inform employees, shareholders or unions of any of the matters specified in the Act
  • give the agency information relating to compliance if issued with a notice to do so, or
  • reach a minimum standard or improve against that standard in the next reporting period.

The agency has the power to essentially "name and shame" non-compliant employers by publishing the employer's name and the details of their non-compliance in reports, print media or online. Before that happens, the agency will inform employers of the proposal to publish those details and they will be given the opportunity to respond. The agency must also provide advice and assistance to employers failing to comply with the minimum standards.

The Government's consultation with stakeholders on a range of issues relating to the Act finished on 29 January 2013. Of particular relevance to employers with more than 100 workers will be the setting of industry-specific minimum standards some time before 1 April 2014. Once minimum standards are set, employers will have two years to comply before being exposed to the agency's "name and shame" power under the Act.

Despite its more stringent reporting mechanisms, whether the Act will be effective in addressing ongoing discrimination and lack of diversity in many professions will depend largely on the attitudes of those reporting, and of the agency in enforcing compliance.

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