Lawyer recommends 'foresight, planning and proactivity' from employers
With the Workplace Gender Equality Act (WGEA) (Setting Gender Equality Targets) Bill coming to fruition, employers’ immediate priority should be to monitor possible legal obligations using “foresight, planning and proactivity,” according to King and Wood Mallesons Special Counsel Chris Shelley.
“Employers, and in particular, HR professionals, are mindful that these topics can move quickly and significantly, so it’s really important to understand what’s on the horizon and make sure that businesses are well placed, irrespective of which way things go.”
Introduced to the House of Representatives on 20 November 2024, with a Senate review due on 30 January, the Bill “will be the first of its kind globally” and proposes to amend the WGEA Act 2012 in several ways. This includes requiring companies with 500 or more employees to achieve, and report to, the WGEA, on as-yet unknown gender equality targets.
Shelley advised employers to start by monitoring global and US-centric discussions simmering around diversity and equality initiatives.
“Employers … who are preparing and taking steps …. will be much better placed than those trying to fit those actions into a short period of time or trying to retrospectively assess what they have done and how that might best be reported,” he said.
Shelley said 500-plus sized companies may already be undertaking Bill requirements such as improving their diversity and equality initiatives, or meeting targets and goals.
“The Bill will require (them) to consider how they’re measuring these improvements and whether or not they have the processes and information available to be able to report back,” he said.
For employers not yet at this stage, Shelley suggested the Bill would be the “next step” in addressing gaps or room for improvement.
“Both categories will have something to do,” he said. “It’s just that some will be more advanced than others.”
Holding Redlich partner Megan Cant advised all companies, regardless of employee size, to take a “planned action approach” to the issue, so they aren’t shocked if the Bill becomes law.
Employers already fulfilling Bill requirements should also still take the time to digest WGEA information and identify key areas for improvement.
“Start allocating resources to [the WGEA issue] if you haven’t already, because there will be change in this area, no matter what the end product will be,” Cant said.
“Monitor the Bill as it goes through and start reviewing what your practices are.”
In an article written with colleague Michael Hope in November 2024, Cant stated that the Bill does not contain “specific gender equality targets for employers to choose from and the rules for selecting those targets”.
“WGEA may refuse to provide non-compliant employers with a certificate of compliance,” they said.
“This presents a significant challenge when undertaking procurement for services as Australian government agencies and departments factor in the possession of a WGEA certificate of compliance when procuring services.”
Megan Leahy, First Assistant Secretary in the Office for Women, has refuted this concern, saying recently that companies could still win contracts, with the “barrier” not being a very hard one.
In its public submission to the Senate’s Finance and Public Administration Committee Legislation on 22 January, the Master Electricians Australia (MEA) advised that Bill targets “must account for the limited pool of skilled female apprentices and employees available to the construction industry”.
The group also highlighted that smaller businesses may not be able to offer women the higher salaries of larger ones.
“Without addressing this fundamental issue of low female apprentice attraction rates, numeric targets risk becoming unattainable as employers compete for candidates within the same constrained pool,” the MEA submission stated.
