Browsing: Discrimination | Page 6

• Employers' WHS duties extend to laptop cords; and
  
• "Scathing" mine reports trigger WHS audits in SA.

A major report on the barriers female workers face in the transport industry has identified the need to address systemic WHS gaps, including the lack of workplace amenities for women, physical safety concerns, and diversity issues that have led to a rise in harassment and bullying.

Weak WHS standards and poor complaint processes for victims of bullying and harassment have emerged, again, as major concerns in parliamentary workplaces. The latest review into the issue, this time in Tasmania, has made recommendations around HR functions that should be noted by all organisations.

A company that punished one of its health and safety representatives, for repeatedly raising safety concerns with a health and safety regulator, has been found guilty of and sentenced for OHS discrimination.

Imposing a positive duty on employers to eliminate workplace discrimination, harassment and victimisation will fill gaps left by WHS laws and enforcement, but will not require duty holders to prove these forms of misconduct are "impossible" at their sites, according to a legislative review, whose 163 recommendations have been accepted in Western Australia.

A superior court has confirmed that a worker who was exposed to bullying and racist taunts by a colleague suffered a compensable psychological injury, rejecting his employer's claim his pre-existing mental health issues blocked his access to benefits.

A first-of-its-kind Australian study has shown that workplace diversity training and "ally networks" have a positive impact on the wellbeing of employees who identify as LGBTQ+, and in turn, a positive impact on workplace productivity.

Employers will soon be required to proactively take steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and adopt new procedures for managing psychosocial risks, under new legislation committed to by the Federal Labor Government.

A WHS regulator has released three new information sheets with guidelines on identifying, controlling and responding to gendered violence in the workplace, specifically, s-xual harassment and assault.

The mining industry has been described as harbouring "a culture of cover-up", in the "'Enough Is Enough': S-xual harassment against women in the FIFO mining industry" report. The parliamentary inquiry report makes 79 findings and 24 recommendations for addressing the "horrendous violence and abuse women are subjected to while going about their work".