Page 2124 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 August 2014
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The study found that discrimination constituted everything from negative attitudes through to job loss and that there was a significant negative impact on the women who suffered it. It seriously affected women’s attachment to their workplace, and why of course would it not? Imagine working for an organisation for a number of years, becoming a parent, and then being restructured, made redundant or paid less. Mothers who experienced discrimination were much less likely to return to their job or return to the workforce.
Fathers taking parental leave were also covered in the survey, and over a quarter of them reported experiencing discrimination when requesting or taking parental leave or when they returned to work. The findings indicated that there is very limited awareness and understanding of discrimination, its nature and consequences amongst mothers and fathers.
What kinds of discrimination are we talking about here? With mothers, it occurred both during pregnancy and on requesting parenting leave. It included being made redundant or not having contracts renewed, which included being treated so poorly that women felt they needed to leave. It related to pay, conditions and duties, including the denial of leave to attend medical appointments, having to take parental leave earlier or later than preferred, denial of access to leave that women are entitled to. So we see a range of very subtle but nonetheless discriminatory actions.
In the area of health and safety, women were not provided with toilet breaks, a suitable uniform, workloads were not adjusted to accommodate pregnancy or people were not transferred to a safe job which involved different hours to make things easier for them. There are also issues around performance assessment and career advancement, including missing out on opportunities for promotion, denial of access to professional development and missing out on performance appraisals. It also included negative attitudes from colleagues and threats of redundancy or dismissal that were not actioned.
The impact of perceived discrimination for women was that if they felt that they were supported by their employer, they were more engaged and attached to their workplace. Of the mothers who reported experiencing discrimination at work during their pregnancy, 23 per cent did not return to that main employer. I think what this tells us is that whether or not discrimination is reported, whether it is in fact identified as having occurred, even the perception of discrimination has a massive impact on the actions of women in feeling comfortable in their workplace.
There is a great deal of detail in the report, but I did note with interest that the commissioner highlighted that in many ways the laws surrounding this issue are basically what is required but that the recommendations are, in her words, “directed towards a much better implementation of legal obligations through greater provision of information about employee rights and employer obligations”. She also said:
This is an approach intended to help plug the gap that allows this discrimination to take place—the gap between the legal framework and the implementation of the law.
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