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Employee and workplace rights

All employees deserve to be treated fairly and with respect. It’s not just good for business; it’s the law. Discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying cost time and money, damage morale, reduce productivity and undermine reputations. Employers' responsibilities apply across all stages of employment, including recruitment, during pregnancy, returning to work after parental leave, if you are injured or ill, and if you are being dismissed or made redundant.

Topics

Bullying

Disability and the workplace

Discrimination

Dismissal

Employment activity

Flexible work

Industrial activity

Liability

Recruitment and designated roles

Returning to work

Sexual harassment

Volunteering

Key stats

51%

of complaints we received in 2018–19 were about unfair treatment in the workplace

Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission

19%

is the increase in revenues earned by companies with diverse management teams, as a result of greater innovation

Stories

Karim's story

"The advertiser was looking for 'a driven, energetic and young marketing expert' to join their team – I thought all of those things sounded like me, but I wasn’t sure that I still qualified as 'young'. It sounded discriminatory to me."

Zoe's story

"Later that week, my manager spoke to me about the meeting. He was angry that I’d arranged the meeting and said that I was trying to undermine him. He said I was ‘a troublemaker’ who needed to ‘learn to fit in’."

Kieran's story

"We got a new supervisor who was a couple of decades younger than me. She was chatty and wanted to be friends with all the younger staff, but she treated me like I was old and out of touch."

Related resources

Guideline: Transgender people at work > Complying with the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 in employment – Jul 2014