Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Australia (Ratification: 1973)

The Committee notes with interest the detailed information contained in the Government's reports, in particular the information on further progress achieved in implementing the Convention at both the state and federal levels.

1. In particular, the Committee notes the adoption of new federal legislation to further the implementation of the Convention: (a) the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Regulations, 1989, which declare additional grounds of discrimination for the purposes of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act, 1986, to be age, medical record, criminal record, impairment, marital status, mental, intellectual or psychiatric disability, nationality, physical disability, sexual preference or trade union activity; (b) the Law and Justice Amendment Act, 1990, which removes from the Racial Discrimination Act, 1975, the requirement that race be the dominant reason for an action to be found unlawful, introduces a vicarious liability provision and extends that Act to cover situations of indirect discrimination; (c) the Sex Discrimination Amendment Act, 1991, which replaces the previous exemption for superannuation and insurance in the principal Act with a provision exempting only such schemes as are based on reasonable actuarial or statistical data; and (d) the Disability Discrimination Act, 1991, which makes direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of disability unlawful in a number of areas including employment, education, access to premises and the administration of Commonwealth laws and programmes and introduces a standard of unjustifiable hardship on the basis of which the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission may consider cases concerning the requirement to accommodate the circumstances of people with disabilities.

2. The Committee takes note of the information supplied by the Government on the adoption of a new Equal Pay Policy in March 1992 which has the aim of ensuring that work of equal value is remunerated at an equal rate of pay, the establishment of an Equal Pay Unit within the Department of Industrial Relations and the implementation of the process of award restructuring. With regard to these new developments, the Committee refers to its comments under Convention No. 100.

3. The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.