Gender equality obligations are key tasks that certain organisations must complete to make sure everyone is treated fairly at work and in the community. These tasks are defined under the Gender Equality Act 2020 and include addressing issues like pay gaps, career opportunities and workplace culture. They also help organisations think critically about how their policies, programs and services will meet the needs of people of all genders.
The key tasks that organisations must complete are:
- Promoting gender equality
- Conducting gender impact assessments (GIAs)
- Undertaking an audit
- Creating a gender equality action plan (GEAP)
- Reporting on progress.
Organisations with gender equality obligations
The Gender Equality Act 2020 applies to around 300 organisations with 50 or more employees. These organisations are called duty holders, (or ‘defined entities’ in the Act), and include:
- public service bodies
- public entities
- special bodies
- local councils
- universities
- Court Services Victoria
- Office of Public Prosecutions.
View the complete list of duty holders.
An overview of gender equality obligations
Organisations with obligations under the Act must complete 5 key tasks:
Promoting gender equality
Promoting gender equality means that when your organisation creates policies, programs, or services that have an impact on the public, it must:
- consider, promote and support gender equality
- take appropriate action to achieve gender equality.
This is a duty under the Act to ensure the Victorian public sector organisations make lasting and genuine progress towards gender equality across our community.
Find out more about promoting gender equality.
Conducting a gender impact assessment
A gender impact assessment (GIA) is a planning and assessment tool designed to help your organisation evaluate how its policies, programs and services meet the needs of women, men and gender diverse people.
GIAs help your organisation ensure that all people have equal access to opportunities and resources.
GIAs must be applied to new policies, programs and services – and those under review - that are considered to have a direct and significant impact on the public. This means your organisation may need to do multiple GIAs over time.
You don’t need to submit GIAs to the commissioner, but you do need to report on them in your progress report.
Find out more about gender impact assessments.
Audits
An audit involves collecting and analysing workforce and employee experience data. This helps your organisation understand its gender equality baseline and assess its progress towards creating a fairer and more inclusive work environment.
The audit must collect and report data against 7 workplace gender equality indicators, which are:
- gender composition at all levels of the workforce
- gender composition of governing bodies
- gender pay equity
- workplace sexual harassment
- recruitment and promotion
- leave and flexibility
- gendered work segregation.
The results of your audit will inform:
- the actions your organisation will take in its gender equality action plan (GEAP)
- the progress your organisation has made against the indicators, in your progress reports.
An audit needs to be done every for every GEAP and progress report. This means you will do an audit every two years. In a year when both a GEAP and progress report are due, a single audit supports both obligations.
Find out more about audits.
Gender equality action plan
A gender equality action plan (GEAP) is a set of commitments and actions to promote and achieve gender equality in your organisation. It has goals and actions aimed at ensuring equal rights and opportunities for all genders.
Your organisation’s GEAP needs to include:
- results of the workplace gender audit, to assess your workplace’s gender equality baseline
- strategies and measures to improve gender equality in the workplace, which are based on the results of the workplace gender audit.
A GEAP must be prepared every four years and submitted to us.
Find out more about gender equality action plans.
Reporting on progress
Reporting on your organisation’s progress helps to assess how well the strategies and measures in your GEAP are working.
A progress report must include:
- all policies, programs and services for which a GIA was done
- actions taken for each GIA
- progress on the strategies and measures in your GEAP
- progress against the 7 workplace gender equality indicators.
A progress report must be prepared every 2 years and submitted to us.
The Commissioner and commission staff assess each progress report and provide feedback to your organisation.
Find out more about progress reports.
Submitting your plans, audits and reports
Your organisation's plans, reports and audits must be submitted to us using our reporting platform.
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