Direct And Indirect Discrimination In Australia

Legal aspects of employment that can impact employees in the workplace

[Discrimination]

1. Issue overview:
[Outline of the issue and why it is important]
Discrimination is a significant issue that many employees are facing in their work place. Discrimination is the unfair treatment of one particular person because of their gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, culture, race, or other personal traits. It is unlawful to refuse to hire a potential employee based on one of the attributes listed above. Discrimination in the workplace generally falls into two categories, direct and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination is when a person is treated less favourably due to their personal traits, while indirect discrimination involves actions that may involve an imposition of a condition, requirement or practice in which one class will be able to comply with, while another class of employees will fail to do so. Discrimination is an important aspect of Australian workplaces, as Australia is known for its multiculturalism.

2.

Employee rights:
[Outline of the rights that employees have in this area]
Employees have the right to feel safe in their workplace and not feel targeted because of their personal traits. All employees in Australia of all backgrounds have the right to be treated equally and the right to have the same opportunities.

3. [A law that protects Australian workers in this area]
The best-known employment anti-discrimination law that prohibits an employer or employees from discriminating on the basis of race, national origin, gender, or religion is the Fair Work Act 2009. This law is in place to ensure that employees and prospective employees are protected from unlawful workplace discrimination and any other adverse actions by an

employer.

4. Case/Media:
[A case or article from Australia in the past 10 years that highlights this issue that includes what the problem is, what action was taken and the outcome]
The Fair Work Ombudsman publicized that the operators of a Japanese restaurant at Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia have confessed to purposely underpaying 16 casual employees. Many of the workers were in Australia on a 417 working holiday visa. They were allegedly paid flat rates as low as $10 an hour to work as kitchen hands and wait on tables. Under the Restaurant Industry Award, they should have been paid a minimum of $21.09 for ordinary hours worked, up to $25.31 on weekends and $42.18 on public holidays. All together, they were short-changed more than $31,500 when they worked for the Uchouten Japanese Restaurant between December 2013 and October 2014. Operators Chiiko Minagawa and Moon Yeom admitted the underpayments were deliberate and the restaurant operated on the foundation that it would not be caught. The Fair Work Ombudsman discovered the wage fraud after one of the workers went to the Agency's Gold Coast office demanding assistance. Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said the restaurant's admission that it deliberately exploited overseas workers is extremely worrying and announced that the business faces enforcement action and has been requested to sign an Enforceable Undertaking (EU).
The EU requires:
- Back-payment of all remaining wages and entitlements
-A public apology for their behavior to be placed in the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper
-Registration with the Fair Work Ombudsman's online tool
-Employment records be upheld and pay-slips issued to staff
-An obligation to future obedience with federal workplace laws
-Workplace associations training for managers with HR, payroll and recruitment functions
-The appointment of an external professional to review the business's compliance with workplace laws and regulations by the end of November 2016.