The Australian Human Rights Commission under the respect at work legislation has been granted additional powers in order to manage sexual harassment in the workplace. Interestingly, part of these powers include the ability to conduct inquiries or investigate businesses that they are not complying with the act as well as issuing compliance notices and enforceable undertakings based on their investigation.

Taking this even further, the Australian Human Rights Commission can enquire into any matter that relates to actual or suspected systemic unlawful discrimination, which basically means discrimination against class or group of people that is continuous, repetitive or forms a pattern.

So, as we can see here, this gives a little bit more “teeth” to what the Australian Human Rights Commission can do. From our perspective, we also think that these changes will see breaches of the legislation dealt with in a more expedient manner. In the past Australian Human Rights Commission had to pass cases on to other judicial bodies, but now they have the power to make enforceable actions on their own.

It remains to be seen if this will lead to an increase in the number of complaints that the Australian Human Rights Commission takes action on. There is also obviously the potential for an increase in the number of overall complaints with the simplified pathway for complaints. However, from our perspective there is not likely to be any significant impacts for the majority of businesses.