This month the Australian Human Rights Council (the AHRC) has published its Guidelines for Complying with the Positive Duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (the Guidelines). These Guidelines are the AHRC’s comprehensive legal guidance on the duty, and the AHRC has indicated it will be using these guidelines to assess compliance.
As you may now be aware, employers and persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) now have a legal duty to ‘take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate relevant unlawful conduct as far as possible’, including sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, hostile work environments on the ground of sex, and related victimisation. The Guidelines provide a framework for positive duty compliance, using seven Standards and four Guiding Principles, as well as examples of how organisations can, practically, discharge the positive duty.
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