BSBDIV501- Assessment 2

Workplace diversity Policy

1. The Introduction

Diversity has to do with more than ethnicity or race. Diverse workplaces are made up of employees with
varying characteristics including, but not limited to, political and religious beliefs, gender, ethnicity,
education, socioeconomic background, geographic location and sexual orientation.

The Workplace Diversity Policy is majorly designed to support the Company’s current commitment to
recognizing, promoting and supporting diversity in the work environment.

2. Objectives and purpose

We are committed to providing an inclusive workplace culture where all the staff are valued and
recognized for their unique skills, ideas and perspectives. We acknowledge the perspectives and skills
that people may bring to the workplace by gender, age, ethnicity, disability, race, sexual orientation,
gender identity, intersex status or some other differences.

We are committed to give a working environment which values diversity and inclusion that supports all
the employees to reach their full potential. Our commitment is demonstrated via workplace diversity
and inclusion strategies, policies and initiatives. It include:

• Access to flexible working arrangements such as flexible hours and part time work

• Awareness and training programs and support for managers, staff and teams including
Indigenous Cultural Awareness, Confidence training and disability awareness

• Celebrating diversity events and days to promote awareness and inclusion

• Diversity specific employee networks designed for all the staff to connect, express their views,
experiences and share information

3. Relevant Supportive Legislations

Racial Discrimination Act of 1975

The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 gives the effect to Australia's obligations under International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Its important objectives are to

• promote the equality before the law for all persons, regardless of their national, race or national
or ethnic origin, and
• make discrimination against people on the basis of their race, colour, national or descent or
ethnic origin unlawful

The Act protects people from racial discrimination in almost every area of public life, including
employment, education, getting or using services, buying or renting a house or unit, and accessing public
places.

It is unlawful to discriminate in advertising jobs, during recruitment and in selection criteria, when
making decisions about transfer, training and promotion opportunities, and in the terms, conditions and
termination of employment.

Examples of some racial discriminations in employment are as follows:

• To insist that all employees have to speak English at all times, even during their breaks

• Not giving job to someone from a particular racial group because ‘those people are unreliable’

• Not giving job or promoting someone because of assumptions they would not ‘fit in’ with their
colleagues, or

• Unequal treatment in the course of work on the basis of race like subjecting employees to
negative comments about their race.

Sex Discrimination Act of 1984

The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 gives effect to the Australia’s obligations in order to

• promote equality between women and men

• Remove discrimination on the basis of sex, status or pregnancy and, with respect to dismissals,
family responsibilities, and

• eliminate sexual harassment at workplace, in educational institutions, in the provision of

services and goods, in the provision of accommodation and also the delivery of Commonwealth
programs.

Sex discrimination in employment appears when someone is treated less favorably than a person of who
is opposite in sex would be treated in the same or similar circumstances. It can occur when managers or
employers hold assumptions about what sort of work women are not capable – or capable – of
performing.

Examples of sex discrimination include:

• Not hiring a woman because the manager thinks she won’t fit into a ‘traditionally’ male
workplace

• Not paying a woman the same salary as a man for doing the same amount of work, or not
providing the same opportunities for mentoring, training or promotion

• Providing work tasks based on a person’s sex.

Disability Discrimination Act of 1992

Disability discrimination is when a person with a disability is treated less favorably than a normal person
in the same or similar circumstances. The Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA)
makes it against the law to treat people unequally because of a disability.

The Act makes it against the law to discriminate against people with disabilities in employment,
including:

• The hiring process, such as advertising, interviewing, and other selection processes

• Decisions on who will get the employment

• Terms and conditions of employment, such as pay rates, leave and working hours

• Promotion, training, transfer or other benefits associated with employment

• Dismissal or any other detriment, such as retrenchment or demotion.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act (1992), employers and managers are obligated to make
adjustments to accommodate an individual’s disability, until that adjustment would result in
unjustifiable hardship. Many employers accept and that flexibility of workplace is an attraction and
retention strategy.

The Age Discrimination Act 2004

Age discrimination arises when a person is treated less favorably, or not provided the same
opportunities as others in a similar situation, because she or is considered to be too old or too young.

The Act makes it against the law to discriminate on the basis of age when advertising jobs; during hiring
and selection processes, when making decisions regarding training, transfer and promotion
opportunities, and in the terms and conditions of employment.
Stereotypes regarding young people and mature workers can immensely influence decisions made
during recruitment and in the workplace.

Examples of age discrimination include:

• Not hiring certain people because they won’t ‘fit in’ with other employees because of their age.

• Not hiring younger workers because of assumptions that they will quickly move on to another
job.

• advertising a post for someone aged ‘under 30’ to join a dynamic young team.

• making choices around redundancy, or forcing someone to get retire, because of her or his age.

• bullying or harassing a person because of his or her age.

The Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986

Discrimination on the basis of sex, colour, age, religion, political opinion, national extraction, social
origin, medical record, criminal record, marital or relationship status, impairment, mental issue, physical
disability, nationality, sexual orientation, and trade union activity. Also covers Discrimination in
occupation or employment.

The Work Health and Safety Act 2011

The Act in Victoria is the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 2004. The objects of the Act are given
below:

• To ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees and other persons at workplace

• To eliminate, at the source, risks to health, welfare or safety of employees and other persons at
workplace

• To make sure that the health and safety of other members of the public is not placed at risk by
the conduct of undertakings by employers and also self-employed persons

• To provide for the involvement of the employees, employers, and organizations representing
those people, in the formulation and implementation of health, welfare and safety standards.

Fair Work Act of 2009

The Fair Work Act 2009 (Act) is the primary piece of legislation handling Australia’s workplaces. The
obligations and rules for employees and employers which are outlined within the Fair Work Act 2009 are
known as national workplace relationship system. The purpose of this system is to provide a healthy
framework for productive workplace relations that enhance national economic prosperity and social
inclusion for all Australians. This essentially means that it is in place for the good of all and does not
come with any biased or subjective perspectives.

The Act:

• provides for terms and conditions of hiring

• sets out responsibilities and rights of employees, employers and organizations in relation to that
employment

• provides the compliance with enforcement of the Act

• provides for the administration of the Act by creating the Fair Work Commission and the Fair
Work Ombudsman

Employer Roles and Responsibility

As an employer, she/he must give a safe and healthy workplace for employees. This includes:

• providing and keeping safe plant (such as machinery and equipment) and safe systems of work
(such as controlling entry to high risk portions, handling work pace and frequency and providing systems
to prevent falls from heights)

• Implementing arrangements for safe use, handling, storage and transport of chemicals (such as
dangerous goods and other harmful risky materials)

• Maintaining the workplace in a safe environment (such as ensuring fire exits are not blocked,
emergency equipment are serviceable, and the worksite is generally tidy)

• providing contractors and workers with adequate facilities (such as clean toilets, cool and clean
drinking water and hygienic eating areas)

• ensuring that workers have adequate information, instruction, training and supervision to work
in a safe and healthy manner.

During the duty of care of employers under the 2004 Occupational Health and Safety Act are more or
less the same as they were under the 1985 Act, the definition of health has been amended. The new
definition is as follows: "health" includes psychological health and care. It means that the employer have
to address workplace hazards such as bullying, stress and fatigue.

Managers and supervisors roles and responsibility

As an employer or supervisor, the responsibilities include making sure the health and safety of the
workers. As someone responsible for managing and supervising others at work, supervisor/manager
have authority from employer to take action on their behalf to meet the legal requirements for safety
and health.

It includes the responsibility of:

Taking all reasonable care to prevent illnesses or injuries occurring at work

Take every step to ensure that workers are aware of the organization’s health and safety policies and
follow them. Do everything inside your authority to reduce or remove the risk of injury and illness.

Attempt to solve any health and safety issues as soon as possible

If it is unable to resolve an issue, manager/supervision should speak to top authority about the issue. In
the meantime, if there's an ongoing risk to workers, take all possible measures to reduce it while the
problem is being resolved.

Do everything reasonable to help an injured or ill worker to return to work

First of all, if a worker is injured supervisor/employer should help them to get appropriate medical
treatment. If the incident resulted in or could have resulted in death or serious injury, notify WorkSafe
immediately and must also keep in record the details of the injury or illness in the workplace's Register
of Injuries.

Roles and Responsibility of employee

The duties employees (workers) have under Occupational Health and Safety 2004 Act. The one major
difference is that workers, like employers and other parties, can now be charged under the new offence
of 'reckless endangerment'. For more information on this topic, see the page on Reckless Endangerment
in this section

Worker must:

• Take reasonable care for their own safety and health.

• Take reasonable care for the health and safety of others who may get affected by their acts or
omissions.

• co-operate with anything that the employer have to comply with OHS requirements.
• Not intentionally or recklessly interfere with or even misuse, anything given at the workplace for
OHS.

The Act also clarify that in determining whether a worker failed to take reasonable care, regard must be
had to what the employee knew about the relevant conditions'.

Grievance Procedures

Grievance is any type of issue, concern or complaint related to an employee’s work or the work
environment. A personal grievance can be about any act, omission, behavior, situation or decision
impacting on an employee that the employee thinks is unfair or unequal.

A grievance can relate to almost every aspect of employment, for example:

• Safety in the place of work

• Staff training or development

• The Leave allocation

• Managing

• Rosters or working hours

• Performance appraisals

• Promotion or transfer

• Salary level or wages

Scope

The procedures outlined in this Policy target to achieve consistent treatment in the handling of personal
grievances in the place of work and given a procedure to follow in the event a personal grievance arises.

Motive

The main target of these guidelines is to achieve consistent treatment in the handling of personal
grievances in the workplace and given a procedure to follow in the event a personal grievance arises.

Dealing with Grievances

The company recognizes that an employee may not perform up to the mark if they feel they are being
treated unfairly or are feeling aggrieved.

Accordingly, the company will endeavor to provide a fair and supportive working environment, by
aiming to make sure that employees have access to processes for the resolution of genuine personal
grievances related to the work and workplace.

The company will be using its reasonable endeavors to:

• Encourage the staff to come forward with personal grievances;

• Deal with personal grievances in a supportive way, without any victimization or intimidation of
any person connected with the grievance;

• Encourage fairness, impartiality and the solution of personal grievances as reasonably

• Promptly and as close as possible to the main source of the grievance; and

• Have employer and supervisors seek to prevent and resolve personal grievances.

• Where a personal grievance start, the company will endeavor, if appropriate, to resolve the
issue.

Staff Grievance Procedure

1. Attempt to rectify the grievance directly

If the employee feels comfortable in doing this, they should attempt to address the problem directly
with the person(s) involved in the grievance. The employee may find the other person was not aware of
their grievance and the dispute can be resolved directly.

2. Report the grievance to the management

If the employee doesn’t feel so comfortable talking to the person(s) involved, or they have tried to and it
was ineffective in resolving the grievance, or if there is nobody involved in the grievance, the employee
should report the grievance in the first instance to his/her line-manager.

3. The Informal Procedure

A range of informal actions can resolve the grievances. Such actions will be depending on the individual
circumstances of the grievance. Possible actions include, but are not really limited to:

• The line-manager will discuss the issue with the person against whom the complaint is made;
and/or

• The line-manager facilitating a discussion between the parties in an attempt to solve the issue
and move forward.
4. Formal Procedure

The step involves a formal investigation of the grievance and a formal decision about appropriate
outcomes and actions. In the first instance, this will be handled by the HR Manager. The investigation
normally involves collecting information about the grievance and then making a finding based on the
best available information. If the finding is made, the HR Manager will make recommendations about
that grievance.