Managing Harassment & Discrimination · † Case study examinations of issues around discrimination and harassment in typical employment scenarios. † And much more … Legalities

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Managing Harassment & Discrimination User Guide

Contents About the Author

About Managing Harassment & Discrimination

Minimum computer requirements

Installation

Registration

Changes to service access

Getting Started

Navigation

Colour coding

Searching

Printing

Customer support

Frequently asked questions

Managing Harassment & Discrimination User Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.thomsonreuters.com.au 2

About the Author

Maddocks is a leading Australian law firm with clients that include emerging businesses, government and major corporations, offering proven legal and strategic expertise in a broad range of practice areas and industry sectors. Further details about Maddocks can be found at <www.maddocks.com.au>.

140 William Street Angel Place, 123 Pitt Street Melbourne Vic 3000 Sydney NSW 2000 Australia Australia Tel: +61 3 9288 0555 Tel: +61 2 8223 4100 Fax: +61 3 9288 0666 Fax: +61 2 9221 0872 Email: [email protected]

Contributors

Karl Blake Karl Blake (B.Comm/LLB (Hons)) is a partner in the Workplace Services Group at Maddocks. Karl has extensive experience in providing strategic industrial relations and employment law advice. He advises clients on all aspects of industrial and employment law, including industrial disputes, employment contracts, discrimination and occupational health and safety.

Karl also has extensive litigation experience. He has represented large private sector corporations, the Commonwealth Government and a number of public sector bodies in a range of matters. He has been involved in a number of test cases, including the Electrolux litigation in the High Court of Australia which dealt with the making of workplace agreements and whether particular matters pertained to the employment relationship.

Elena Pappas Elena Pappas has been a member of the Workplace Services team at Maddocks since November 2005. She commenced her articles of clerkship with Maddocks in March 2005 after graduating from the University of Melbourne with a combined Bachelor of Laws (Hons)/Bachelor of Arts degree. She has experience in advising clients in relation to a range of industrial relations matters, and in defending anti-discrimination and unfair and unlawful termination claims.

Elena has worked with a range of public and private sector clients including State Government, Local Government, large corporations, private businesses and the not-for-profit sector.

Elena’s areas of expertise include anti-discrimination in relation to employment and education, unfair and unlawful termination, occupational health and safety, industrial relations and disciplinary issues.



About Managing Harassment & Discrimination

Introduction Welcome to Managing Harassment & Discrimination.

Managing Harassment & Discrimination is a uniquely designed resource that covers workplace harassment and discrimination issues from three different angles: prevention, legalities and complaint handling. The three integrated modules are matched to your needs so you can get the information you are looking for, faster.

Product Overview Managing Harassment & Discrimination includes:

• Prevention Module

• Legalities Module

• Action Module

Prevention Module You may know what’s legally required or know how to manage an issue once it’s arisen, but how can you prevent issues in the first place? The Prevention Module (colour coded green) takes you through the how and why of preventing harassment and discrimination.

What’s covered?

• An examination of why harassment and discrimination occur.

• Methods of gaining management support for preventative initiatives.

• How to identify harassment and discrimination.

• Steps to design, implement, and communicate preventative policies.

• Running preventative training.

• How to audit preventative strategies.

• Practical steps to prevent harassment and discrimination through each of the key employment stages, from recruitment to termination.

• Privacy considerations.

• Impact of workplace culture on preventative strategies.

• Case study examinations of issues around discrimination and harassment in typical employment scenarios.

• And much more …

Legalities Module Understanding your legal obligations is the very foundation of strategies to prevent harassment and discrimination, and actions to resolve issues. The Legalities Module (colour coded blue) takes you through the ever-changing legal framework governing harassment and discrimination throughout Australia. Understanding jurisdictional differences and definitions of legal terminology will give you the confidence to tackle your preventative and complaint management processes.



What’s covered?

• Australian legal framework governing employment-related discrimination and harassment.

• Legal definitions of harassment, discrimination and bullying.

• Types of liability, including primary, vicarious, and for permitting unlawful behaviour.

• Federal, state and territory laws.

• Protected activities throughout Australian states and territories.

• Vilification.

• Offences.

• Exemptions and exceptions.


Action Module While preventative strategies and knowing your legal obligations puts you in a strong position to minimise the risks of a complaint arising, knowing what to do if it happens is crucial. Safeguard yourself and your organisation by handling complaints effectively, legally and swiftly. Minimise damage to reputation, emotional distress and performance problems by learning how to take action (colour coded red).

What’s covered?

• An overview of the complaints process.

• Determining what constitutes a complaint and identifying the substance thereof.

• Internal and external complaint management.

• The difference and relationship between informal and formal complaints.

• Developing a media and communication strategy in relation to an incident.

• The role of contact officers and investigators.

• Managing the complaints process, from interviewing, through evaluation and proceeding to investigation.

• Conducting interviews with complainants, witnesses and alleged perpetrators.

• Determining the standard of proof required to make decisions about alleged unlawful behaviour.

• How to manage the workforce during and after a complaint.

• Steps to take before disciplinary action.

• An explanation of external tribunal and court procedures.

• Case studies to outline the complaint handling process.




Minimum computer requirements

Managing Harassment & Discrimination is designed to operate on personal computers with the following minimum specifications:

• Microsoft OfficeAE 97, 2000, XP, 2003

• Microsoft WindowsAE operating system 98, 2000, Me, XP, NT 4.0

• Microsoft Internet ExplorerAE 5.5 or later

• PentiumAE 166 or higher processor

• 64Mb of RAM (higher recommended)

• Hard disk with at least 100Mb free

• CD-ROM drive (installation purposes only)

• Microsoft or Microsoft-compatible mouse/pointing device

• Screen resolution of at least 800x600 (1024x768 recommended)

Installation

Managing Harassment & Discrimination features a sophisticated installation program that simplifies the process of installing the product on your computer.

Insert the CD in your CD drive.

Most PC systems will automatically start the installation program. If the installation does not start automatically, please follow the instructions below where the D represents the CD drive identification letter.

From the Start menu, select Run and enter the following installation command: D:\ setup

This will initiate the installation wizard, which will prompt you for information about yourself and your computer and then complete the installation for you.

Installation support The Customer Service Team at Thomson Reuters will be pleased to assist you with any questions about installing or using Managing Harassment & Discrimination.

Phone Call 1300 304 195 Monday to Friday 8.45am to 5.30pm Eastern Standard Time.

Uninstalling Should Managing Harassment & Discrimination need to be uninstalled for any reason, follow the steps below.

From the Start menu, select Settings and then select Control Panel.

Doubleclick the Add/Remove Programs icon, identify the name Managing Harassment & Discrimination in the listing and then click Add/Remove to uninstall.



Registration

Managing Harassment & Discrimination is required to be registered within 30 days of installation.

A registration screen similar to the following will be displayed every time you open Managing Harassment & Discrimination until you register, counting down 30 days after installation.

To register, call Thomson Reuters on 1300 304 195.

You will need to quote the Registration Number (including hyphens) displayed on your screen along with your Customer Account Number which is located on your Thomson Reuters invoice or statement.

A member of our Customer Service Team member will confirm your account and service details and quote your Unlock Key which you should enter as directed (including hyphens).

Click OK.

You are now registered to use the modules within Managing Harassment & Discrimination which you have subscribed to for the next 12 months.

The Managing Harassment & Discrimination main menu will be displayed.

You are only able to view and access the modules you have subscribed to.

If you have any questions, please call Thomson Reuters on 1300 304 195.

Impact of not registering or re-registering If you don’t register Managing Harassment & Discrimination within 30days of installation or resubscribe and re-register after 12 months, access to view Managing Harassment & Discrimination will cease.

You will no longer be able to view the information contained in Managing Harassment & Discrimination.




Warning message A warning message will appear 30 days before expiry to ensure you are aware of the expected expiry date.

Renewals An invoice will be sent along with instructions on how to renew at the appropriate time.


Changes to service access

Managing Harassment & Discrimination is a flexible service and consists of three modules (Prevention, Legalities and Action — see pages 3–4).

If you wish to expand or reduce your service (i.e. purchase or conclude access to other modules), please call our Customer Service Team on 1300 304 195.

Getting Started

From the Start menu, select Programs | Thomson | Managing Harassment & Discrimination.

Navigation

Main Menu Upon opening Managing Harassment & Discrimination, the following screen is displayed.

Click the Prevention, Legalities or Action module icons to be taken to the particular module or use the table of contents (see page iii) or search facility (see page 20) to access content.



Table of Contents

Tree and branch Managing Harassment & Discrimination uses a tree and branch to organise the levels of content.

Similar to Microsoft Windows Explorer® and Outlook®, you can collapse and expand different levels of content individually by clicking on the and signs next to the table of contents entries. A indicates there are no more levels of content to be displayed below.

Click to expand (display) individual levels of content.

Click to collapse (hide) individual levels of content.



Expand and collapse table of contents To expand and collapse all levels of the table of contents, two buttons have been provided to make this easy.

Use the Expand table of contents button to expand all levels of content in the table of contents hierarchy.

Use the Collapse table of contents button to retract all levels of content in the table of contents hierarchy to the top level headings.

Sync table of contents with topic If you have clicked a cross-reference hyperlink and would like to give the displayed content context from a table of contents perspective, click the Sync table of contents with topic button.

The table of contents window will automatically expand the table of contents hierarchy to display the table of contents entry related to the displayed content.

Hide table of contents To widen the display area of the content document area by hiding the table of contents, click the Hide table of contents button at the top of the table of contents area.



Managing Harassment & Discrimination content will now display across the width of your screen.

Show table of contents To reset your screen to display table of contents as well as the content document area, click the Show table of contents button at the top of the tab area.

Managing Harassment & Discrimination content will now display the table of contents and the content on your screen.



Reference path Managing Harassment & Discrimination displays the reference path to the current information displayed in the content document area at the top of the screen.

Click the hyperlinked reference information to display that content or use this feature to return to your previous information after clicking a cross reference (or click Back on your Internet Explorer® toolbar).

Cross-references Managing Harassment & Discrimination has provided cross-references to facilitate access to related content.

Where cross-references to other content in Managing Harassment & Discrimination have been identified, they are listed at the bottom of the document content area as illustrated in the above example.

Click the title of the cross-reference to be taken to the related content.

If you have not subscribed to all modules, a warning message will appear when clicking cross-references to information from another module that you do not have access to.

If you cannot access the modules you believe you have subscribed to, or wish to expand your subscription, please contact the Customer Service Team at Thomson Reuters on Call 1300 304 195.



Hyperlinks Where applicable, hyperlinks to both Managing Harassment & Discrimination content and external web sites have been inserted into the text.

A hyperlink is identified by blue underlined text.

Click the linked text to be taken to the related content.

External web links will only be accessible if you have Internet access.

Tabs Managing Harassment & Discrimination content has been categorised into the following types:

• Commentary — detailed information about the topic.

• Forms — forms and templates related to the topic, e.g. leave forms, termination letter.

• Policies & Procedures — policies and procedures related to the topic, e.g. Harassment & Discrimination policy.

• Checklists — checklists related to the topic, e.g. Induction checklist.

• Cases — cases related to the topic, e.g. Bogle v. Metropolitan Health Services Board.

These content types are represented by tabs at the top of your screen.

Click each tab to display associated content to the heading you have clicked.

Note: A message will be displayed if there is no content available for the heading.

The tab will be displayed in a darker colour to indicate the content type being currently viewed.

As an alternative means of access, a list of content within the tab categories is included at the end of each module’s table of contents.



Commentary

Click cross-references and hyperlinks to display related information.

Forms

Click the document title to view the form.

To save the form for use • Place your mouse (pointer) on the text link (title) for the file you require.

• Click the right mouse button.

• Select the Save Target as... option.

• Specify the location to save the file on your local drive.

• Open and adapt the file for your use from your local drive.

Note: Changes made to the saved form will not be reflected in the file as it appears within Managing Harassment & Discrimination.



Policies & Procedures

Click the document title to view the policy or procedure.

To save the policy or procedure for use • Place your mouse (pointer) on the text link (title) for the file you require.





Note: Changes made to the saved policy or procedure will not be reflected in the file as it appears within Managing Harassment & Discrimination.

Checklists

Click the document title to view the checklist.

To save the policy or procedure for use • Place your mouse (pointer) on the text link (title) for the file you require.





Note: Changes made to the saved checklist will not be reflected in the file as it appears within Managing Harassment & Discrimination.



Cases

Click the case title to display further information on the case.



Colour coding

Managing Harassment & Discrimination content has been colour coded to indicate which module the content forms part of.

Green tabs and headings — Prevention Module.

Blue tabs and headings — Legalities Module.

Red tabs and headings — Action Module.

Purple tabs and headings — information that is shared by more than one module.

Searching

To begin a search, just type in a few descriptive words into the Search field at the top of the screen and press Go.

Only content that contains all the words in your query are returned, so narrowing your search is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already entered.

Phrase and proximity searching Put quotation marks around keywords to search for an exact phrase: ‘Reasonable Steps’ searches for the word Reasonable next to Steps only.

To do proximity searches put the keyword NEAR between each search term: Reasonable NEAR Steps will find matches that have the word Reasonable and Steps within eight words of each other.

Boolean searching Use the keywords AND, OR, AND NOT for boolean searches that return content with all occurrences of the search terms, any occurrence of the search term or one but not another occurrence of a search term.

Boolean queries are processed from left to right. Parenthesis () can be used to group boolean expressions.

Word variations and wildcards Searching automatically stems words so plural and singular words are treated as the same stemmed word.

Similarly you can search for partial words by putting an * at the end of word. For example, searching for examp* will find all words that start with examp.

Automatic exclusion of common words Searching ignores common words and characters such as ‘where’ and ‘how’, as well as certain single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results.



Search results Your search results will be returned in a list similar to the example below.

Click on the title to display the searched content.

Click the Back button on the Internet Explorer® toolbar to return to search results.

Filtering your search results To help identify and locate content, search results are categorised into the following types:

• Commentary

• Forms

• Policies & Procedures

• Checklists

• Cases

Search results can be filtered to locate the exact type of content you required.

The default filter is set to display All search results matching the search terms.



Show filter

To filter your search results, click the Show filter button.

The following will be displayed:

To filter your existing search results, just tick the content types you wish to display.

The search results will automatically display only those content types you wish to see.

Hide filter

To hide the filter from view on the search results screen, just click the Hide filter button.

Printing

Print Record

To print the record being displayed in the content area click on the Print Record icon displayed in the right hand side of the content window.



Print Book

To print all or selected records from the contents click on the Print Book icon located above the table of contents, next to the Sync button.

Use the Print Book icon to select some or all sections of Managing Harassment & Discrimination for print out.



A preview of the material selected will be displayed.

Page and print settings can be altered in the File | Print | Preferences dialog box.



Customer support

The Customer Service Team at Thomson Reuters will be pleased to assist you with any questions about installing or using Managing Harassment & Discrimination.

Please phone 1300 304 195 Monday to Friday between 8.45am and 5.30pm Eastern Standard Time.

Thomson Reuters would appreciate any feedback or suggested improvements for Managing Harassment & Discrimination. Please email any comments to <[email protected]> or phone 1300 304 195.

Frequently asked questions

Q When I click the Managing Harassment & Discrimination shortcut, Internet Explorer® opens with a Page not found error.

A From the Internet Explorer® Tools menu, select Internet Options. Click on the Connections tab and select LAN Settings… Ensure the Use a proxy server and the Bypass proxy server for local addresses options are ticked. Automatically detect settings and Use automatic configuration script should not be ticked. If you have a repetitive problem with these settings, please speak with your IT department before calling Thomson Reuters on 1300 304 195.

Q When I print from Managing Harassment & Discrimination, only the table of contents is printing.

A Ensure you have clicked your mouse in the content area (not the table of contents) before selecting Print Record. From the print dialog box, ensure the option Only the selected frame is selected before clicking OK.

Q My CD doesn’t have all the modules.

A Access to modules is provided through the registration process as a result of the subscription service for which you have paid. If you cannot access the modules you believe you have subscribed to, or wish to expand your subscription, please contact the Customer Service Team at Thomson Reuters on 1300 304 195.

Q When I click on a different tab, I keep getting a message that there are no Forms (Policies & Procedures/Checklists/Cases) available.

A This means that for the commentary selected, there are no associated supplementary forms (or other documents). To access a full list of supplementary content contained within Managing Harassment & Discrimination, go to the end of each module’s table of contents and select ‘List of…’.

Documents

Managing Harassment & Discrimination · † Case study examinations of issues around discrimination and harassment in typical employment scenarios. † And much more … Legalities