If you don’t have all of this in place, not only are you leaving your organisation open to valid and costly legal challenges, but also your organisation is not getting the best out of its employees. Plus, you are almost certainly experiencing the following: Absenteeism by those being discriminated against, bullied or harassed; Increased work error rate; Increased work accident rate, greater than necessary injury/stress claims and associated rehabilitation costs and likely increase in your workers’ compensation premium; Low morale; Decreased productivity; Decrease in the quality of work; Sabotage or other forms of aggressive or destructive behaviour; Loss of reputation/public image; Unnecessary resignations; Wrong employees being appointed, trained and/or promoted, and the best ones being lost/missed; Breakdowns in communication ability and trust; Industrial problems; Internal grievances and external legal challenges. These could be costing you anywhere between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Are you as well protected as you should be?
Anthea Lowe & Associates
There are many Australian Commonwealth, State and Territory laws that deal with issues related to EEO, discrimination, bullying and harassment. The most commonly used laws divide into the following categories: Equal opportunity/Anti-discrimination; Industrial relations/Fair work/Breach of employment contract/Trade practices; Occupational health and safety and Workers’ compensation; Criminal; Common – for example, negligence claims.
Under each of these categories of law, the general rule is that your organisation/employer will be legally liable for any discrimination, harassment or bullying that is committed by any employee that breaks any one or more of these laws – UNLESS your organisation/employer has taken “all reasonable steps” or done everything “reasonably practicable”, to:
a) Prevent the discrimination, harassment, or bullying from happening in the first place, and
b) Resolve, fairly and appropriately, any alleged discrimination, harassment or bullying that is suspected or known by any line manager or appointed grievance adviser or resolver.
Checklist for senior managers, HR managers and employers - © Anthea Lowe & Associates
Australian courts, tribunals and commissions are saying that - at an absolute minimum – you must: 1. Have clear, written policies and procedures that explain precisely what you expect of your employees in relation to both their decision-making, and their behaviour towards each other and your customers or clients; 2. Have a clear, written, trusted, fair and followed grievance procedure, backed by a fair, appropriate and followed counselling and discipline procedure; 3. Distribute these policies and procedures to every one of your employees, including new ones; and 4. Make sure all your employees can understand all these policies and procedures and that they have the knowledge and skills to follow them. In particular, make sure all your line managers are actively promoting and ‘holding the line’ about what is and is not acceptable behaviour. This means actively skills-training all employees, at regular intervals.
