The Workplace Part 1

 
What is equal employment opportunity?
Equal opportunity means that every person can participate freely and equally in areas of public life such as in the workplace, in education, or in accessing goods and services. Discrimination is treating, or proposing to treat, someone unfavourably or bullying them because of a personal characteristic protected by law. Equal opportunity law aims to promote everyone's right to equal opportunities; eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination and sexual harassment; and provide redress for people whose rights have been breached.
The Federal Government’s online guide for the business community (business.gov.au) stipulates that it is unlawful for employees or jobseekers to be disadvantaged as a result of any of the following:
·         race
·         colour
·         gender
·         sexual preference
·         age
·         physical or mental disability
·         marital status
·         family or carer’s responsibilities
·         pregnancy
·         religion
·         political opinion
·         national extraction
·         social origin

What is harassment?
Harassment is unwanted behaviour that you find offensive, where the other person’s behaviour is because:
you have a protected characteristic
there is any connection with a protected characteristic (for example, you are treated as though you have a particular characteristic, even if the other person knows this isn’t true)
Unwanted behaviour could include:
spoken or written abuse
offensive emails
tweets or comments on websites and social media
images and graffiti
physical gestures
facial expressions
banter that is offensive to you
Anything that is unwelcome to you is unwanted. You don’t need to have previously objected to it.
The unwanted behaviour must have the purpose or effect of violating your dignity, or creating a degrading, humiliating, hostile, intimidating or offensive environment for you.
To be unlawful, the treatment must have happened in one of the situations that are covered by the Equality Act. For example, in the workplace or when you are receiving goods or services.

What is bullying?
Bullying is when people repeatedly and intentionally use words or actions against someone or a group of people to cause distress and risk to their wellbeing. These actions are usually done by people who have more influence or power over someone else, or who want to make someone else feel less powerful or helpless.
Bullying is not the same as conflict between people (like having a fight) or disliking someone, even though people might bully each other because of conflict or dislike.
The sort of repeated behaviour that can be considered bullying includes:
·         Keeping someone out of a goupr (online or offline)
·         Acting in an unpleasant way near or towards someone
·         Giving nasty looks, making rude gestures, calling names, being rude and impolite, and constantly negative teasing
·         Spreading rumours or lies, or misrepresenting someone (ie using their Facebook account to post messages as if it were them)
·         Mucking about that goes too far
·         Harassing someone based on their race, sex, religion, gender or a disability
·         Intentionally and repeatedly hurting someone physically
·         Intentionally stalking someone
·         Taking advantage of any power over someone else like a prefect or a student representative
Bullying can happen anywhere. It can be in schools, at home, at work, in online social spaces, via text messaging or via email. It can be physical, verbal, emotional, and it also includes messages, public statements and behaviour online intended to cause distress or harm (also known as cyberbullying). But no matter what form bullying takes, the results can be the same: severe distress and pain for the person being bullied.
Bullying is not specifically addressed in either the OHS regulations or codes. However, under Section 21 of the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004), employers have a general duty care to provide and maintain for employees, as far as practicable,a working environment that is safe and without risks to health
While the duty of care of employers under the 2004 OHS Act is more or less the same as what it was under the 1985 Act, the definition of health was amended. The definition of 'health' is now as follows:
"health" includes psychological health
This means that the employer must address workplace hazards such as bullying, stress and fatigue. So while there are no regulations, WorkSafe Victoria has guidance on bullying, which is an acknowledged, and serious, hazard in workplaces. In 2020, WorkSafe Victoria replaced its previous guide, Preventing and responding to bullying at work with a slimmer publication: Workplace Bullying: a Guide for Employers. For more information from the regulator,  go to the WorkSafe Victoria webpage on Workplace Bullying. 
WorkSafe has a special unit, the psychosocial practice unit, which has inspectors who investigate claims of bullying.
Other law
In Victoria:
In addition, injury or ill-health due to workplace bullying may become the subject of WorkCover claims or common law actions.
Some forms of bullying may constitute assault and be an offence under the Crimes Act; and in legislation which extends the criminal offence of stalking (known as 'Brodie's Law') introduced in June 2011 bullying may be a crime.  Loss of employment (whether dismissal or being forced to resign - effective dismissal) and victimisation may be covered by Workplace Relations legislation.
The bullying may also be a breach of sexual harassment and anti-discrimination legislation.
Employers and/or the bully may find themselves facing fines, compensation and possibly a jail sentence.
Federal law:
Since 1 January 2014, if a worker is being bullied at work, he or she has been able to apply to the national industrial commission (the Fair Work Commission) for an 'order' to stop that bullying. The changes to the legislation mean that the Commission must respond to such an application two weeks after it is received. Orders may be anything from directing the bullying behaviour to stop, to ensuring that all staff undergo anti-bullying training. If the person who is the bully does not follow they orders, they face very significant fines.  The changes are designed to make sure workers who are bullied have access to fair, fast and effective mechanisms that will resolve the situation.

Question Title

* 1. What are the protected characteristics for harassment?

Question Title

* 2. Write a paragraph about the differences between harassment and bullying.

Question Title

* 3. Give a workplace example of
·         Sexual harassment
·         Racial discrimination
·         Gender discrimination

Question Title

* 4. Research Cyber Bullying and provide 3 examples of cyber bullying and what you believe the consequences could be.

Question Title

* 5. Whose responsibility is it to respond to bullying and which government body investigates any reports.

Question Title

* 6. Research the importance of health and safety representatives in Victoria and explain what their role is and why it is important in the workplace.

Question Title

* 7. Student Details

( Privacy & Cookie Notice

T