April 22nd, 2024
Latest News
Australian Childcare Alliance are proud to launch a new and exciting product that aims to take the pain out of staying on top of your new legal requirements, for a very special ACA member-exclusive price.
Your new legal obligations around sexual harassment
As you would be aware, in late 2022 the Federal Government changed the laws around sexual harassment in Australian workplaces.
What you may not know, is that the new laws impose a new positive duty on all businesses, which includes early learning service providers.
Simply responding to sexual harrassment complaints is no longer enough to comply with the law.
This "positive duty" requires employers to shift their focus to actively prevent workplace sexual harassment and discrimination, rather than respond to it only after it occurs.
IMPORTANT NOTE: An employer not meeting their positive duty can lead to various statutory contraventions, including those of the Sex Discrimination Act itself.
The Federal Court recently fined a small business retailer $268,000 in a sexual harrassment case brought against them by an employee. The decision reveals that damages for sexual harassment offences are now increasing. You can read the summary about the case from Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors here
What are the new legal requirements?
Unfortunately the new law doesn’t tell employers or businesses exactly what they need to do to be compliant. That is, the law is not prescriptive - it merely states that the employer must be taking reasonable and proportionate steps to eliminate unlawful conduct as far as possible.
This makes it difficult for an individual early learning service provider to know whether they have ticked off all requirements under the new law.
We'd like to make it easy for you
As part of ACA's commitment to helping our members comply with all regulatory requirements, we have proudly joined forces with Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors (ABLA) to help our members meet their new positive duty obligations around the risk of workplace sexual harassment.
ABLA has taken the pain out of doing the research and exploring the finer detail by developing a Sexual Harassment Positive Duty 'How-To' Guide and Toolkit for businesses. As an early learning service provider, all you need to do is follow the simple steps in the toolkit to make sure you are doing everything possible to meet your legal obligations.
What is the cost to my service?
We have negotiated a special ACA-member exclusive price so you can access this valuable resource at a substantial discount on the current cost ABLA charges their other business clients.
ACA Member-exclusive price: $950 PLUS GST
For a resource of such high value, this is a very affordable price.
We encourage you to make the most of this amazing opportunity to effectively incorporate strategies in your service to address the new affirmative obligation, all the while promoting an atmosphere of respect, trust, and teamwork within your service.
To read more or to sign up, CLICK HERE
As always, should you have any questions,pelase do not hesitate to contact the ACA NSW team on 1300 556 330 or at nsw@childcarealliance.org.au.
PUBLISHED: 20 MARCH 2024
