NFAW is concerned that, while women want meaningful action to prevent sexual harassment, this consultation paper appears focused on reasons for legislative inaction. Over and over again, the consultation paper deploys the four standard reasons for not implementing critical amendments to Commonwealth anti-discrimination legislation.
This submission briefly addresses the gender segregation issues identified in the first three terms of reference. The issues identified in those sections are expanded upon and addressed in detail under the last two terms of reference, which discuss approaches to gender segregation and suggested remedies.
While the well-being of employees is a reasonable point of departure, the Commission takes as its unit of analysis the male employee, arguing that current labour standards should not be modified to accommodate the needs of feminised ‘groups’ of workers because this may lead employers to discriminate against women.
The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW), a non-politically aligned feminist organisation, in conjunction with experts from a range of women’s organisations, has prepared this submission to the Productivity Commission’s (the Commission) inquiry into the workplace relations framework.
The Commission’s draft report argues that ‘a sound workplace relations system must give primacy to the wellbeing of employees (and would-be employees), and take account of community norms about the fair treatment of people