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Personnel Issues
Equal Employment Opportunity - Suggested Answers
Activity 1
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) is about:
- making sure that workplaces are free from all forms of unlawful discrimination and harassment
- providing programs to assist members of EEO groups to overcome past or present disadvantage.
This means having workplace rules, policies, practices and behaviours that are fair and do not disadvantage people because they belong to particular groups.
In such an environment, all workers are valued and respected and have opportunities to develop their full potential and pursue a career path of their choice.
EEO groups are people affected by past or continuing disadvantage or discrimination in employment. As a result they may be more likely to be unemployed or working in lower paid jobs. These groups are:
- women
- Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders
- members of racial, ethnic, and ethno-religious minority groups
- people with a disability.
EEO is designed to achieve the following outcomes:
- a diverse and skilled workforce
- improved employment access and participation by EEO groups
- a workplace culture displaying fair workplace practices and behaviours.
Activity 2
Fair practices and behaviour
EEO aims to achieve fair practices and behaviour in the workplace, including:
- recruitment, selection and promotion practices which are open, competitive and based on merit. [This means the best applicant is selected for the job.]
- access for all employees to training and development
- flexible working arrangements that meet the needs of employees and create a productive workplace
- grievance handling procedures that are accessible to all employees and deal with workplace complaints promptly, confidentially and fairly
- communication processes to give employees access to information and allow their views to be heard
- management decisions being made without bias
- no unlawful discrimination or harassment in the workplace, and
- respect for the social and cultural backgrounds of all employees and customers.
Activity 3
Eliminating discrimination
Discrimination is treating someone unfairly or harassing them because they belong to a particular group. [Under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977(NSW)], it is against the law in NSW for any employer, including the Government, to discriminate against an employee or job applicant because of their:
- age
- sex
- pregnancy
- disability (includes past, present or possible future disability)
- race, colour, ethnic or ethno-religious background, descent or nationality
- marital status
- carer's responsibilities
- homosexuality, or
- transgender
This is the law in most cases. (There are a few exceptions, e.g. sometimes employers get permission to fill a job with a person from a particular group.)
Both direct and indirect discrimination are against the law.
Direct discrimination means treatment that is obviously unfair or unequal. For example, if an employer won't hire someone just because they are a woman this is likely to be direct sex discrimination.
Indirect discrimination means having a requirement that is the same for everyone but has an effect or result that is unfair to particular groups. For example, not considering an employee's overseas skills and training when determining his or her level of pay can constitute indirect race discrimination.
Every employee is responsible for helping prevent unlawful discrimination in their workplace.
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