Changes to Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act
From 1 September, changes to Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act (1995) came into place which give protection from discrimination to working parents and carers.
Under the amendments, it is unlawful for an employer to unreasonably refuse to accommodate a person’s responsibilities as a parent or carer. The changes apply in relation to job applicants and existing employees, as well as to to contract workers and partnerships.
The Act provides some examples of how these new rules can be implemented which include
- working part-time
- job sharing
- working from home for all or part of the working week.
- starting and finishing earlier or later
Practical guidelines to inform employers and employees about these changes and what they might mean are contained in the document Building eQuality in the workplace:Family Responsibilities – Guidelines for Employers and Employees which is available for download on the Victorian Government Human Rights Commission’s website. Carers Victoria helped to develop these guidelines and members of Carers Victoria will be sent a copy of this with their next newsletter.
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This sounds really great and well overdue. In nursing, some individual units can be quite inflexible. It was only just until recently they allowed staff to work part time in public psychiatry.
The other thing for Queensland families is that they are bringing in the companion card for disabled people. Victoria has had this for some time, and operates under the premise that the disabled person is disadvantaged because they have to pay twice to see the same event able people do. Again this is very overdue.
I also wonder if a generic organisation such as Carers Australia can lobby federal and state governments to ensure the benefits disabled people get in their own state is honored in other states, such as pensioner train fares. When we visit Melbourne we are told that Geoffrey and Peter are not eligible because they carry cards issues in Queensland and visitors from Victoria are treated similarly when they visit Queensland. It doesn’t seem fair.
Janine.