Page 2120 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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The ACT government is committed to a flexible and holistic approach to supporting pregnant women in the workplace, assisting those who have been undertaking full-time carer’s responsibilities, including women who have been on maternity leave, to return to and remain in the workforce. Mrs Jones’s motion calls on the government to request the ACT Human Rights Commissioner to collate the statistics on pregnancy discrimination and report on the number of cases. I am pleased to report that the Human Rights Commission already reports on complaints made to it about pregnancy discrimination.
In the commission’s 2012-13 annual report, the commission reported at table 11 on page 60 that three complaints were made to the HRC about pregnancy discrimination in the period covered by the report. But this does not mean there were only three instances of discrimination. We are fortunate in the ACT that there is more than one avenue to address this discrimination, including by complaining to Fair Work Australia or the Australian Human Rights Commission. Each of these bodies also report on their findings in relation to these matters.
The motion also calls on the government to develop a strategy to address pregnancy discrimination. The ACT Discrimination Act has been in force since l99l, and since that time, it has always been unlawful to discriminate against a person on the grounds of pregnancy or status as a parent or carer. The Human Rights Commission, and before the commission the Human Rights Office, has been able to handle complaints made on these grounds. It has worked with individuals, their families and their employers to try to resolve complaints and to foster a discrimination-free workplace.
Since July 2009 regulation of workplaces in the ACT but outside the ACT public service has been largely been the responsibility of the commonwealth. The workplace relations system that governs employment in private enterprises is set out in the Fair Work Act 2009. Under this system, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee or a prospective employee because of a range of attributes of the person, including their marital status, their family or carer responsibilities or because they are pregnant. The Fair Work Act describes a range of adverse actions, such as dismissing an employee, altering a person’s position to their detriment or refusing to employ a person because of these attributes. The Fair Work Ombudsman can take action against an employer who has taken or is taking adverse action against an employee that involves such unlawful discrimination.
The motion also calls on the government to ensure it has an appropriate policy in place to deal with pregnancy discrimination in the ACT public service. Once again, I am pleased to advise members that the ACT public service already has a number of strategies in place to address pregnancy discrimination. The first is through the RED framework. The respect, equity and diversity framework was launched in December 2010. It aims to provide a workplace that provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. It highlights the fundamental importance of each public service employee acting in ways that respect the inherent dignity of other people.
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