Managing Harassment & Discrimination€¦ · She has investigated sexual harassment and bullying complaints, represented employers defending discrimination complaints, sought exemptions

MANAGING

HARASSMENT &

DISCRIMINATION

USER GUIDE

Author

Maddocks

The information contained herein is sold on the understanding that it

neither represents nor is intended to be advice or that the publisher or

author is engaged in rendering legal or professional advice. While every

care has been taken in its preparation, no person should act specifically

on the basis of the material contained herein. If expert assistance is

required competent professional advice should be obtained.

Thomson Legal & Regulatory Limited ABN 64 058 914 668, directors and

authors or any other persons involved in the preparation and

distribution of this publication, expressly disclaim all and any

contractual, tortious or other form of liability to any person (purchaser

of the publication or not) in respect of the publication and any

consequences arising from its use by any person in reliance upon the

whole or any part of the contents of this publication.

CONTENTS

Thomson CPD Business Solutions ..........................................v

About the Author ............................................................vii

Maddocks ......................................................................vii

About Managing Harassment & Discrimination ..........................1

Introduction .....................................................................1

Product overview ..............................................................1

Minimum computer requirements .........................................4

Installation .....................................................................5

Installation Support ............................................................5

Uninstalling .....................................................................5

Registration ....................................................................6

Impact of not registering or re-registering ................................7

Warning message ...............................................................7

Renewals ........................................................................7

Changes to service access ...................................................7

Getting started ................................................................8

Navigation ......................................................................8

Main Menu .......................................................................8

Table of Contents ..............................................................9

Reference path ...............................................................13

Cross-references ..............................................................14

Hyperlinks .....................................................................15

MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE iii

Copyright © 2004 Thomson Legal & Regulatory Limited ABN 64 058 914

668, 35 Cotham Road, Kew Vic 3101 Australia. All rights reserved. No

part of the CD content or any other peripheral documents can be

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or

mechanical including photocopying and recording for any purpose

without the express permission of Thomson.

ISBN 1 86339 311 0

Tabs .............................................................................15

Commentary ...................................................................16

Forms ...........................................................................17

Policies & Procedures ........................................................17

Checklists ......................................................................18

Cases ...........................................................................19

Colour coding .................................................................20

Searching ......................................................................20

Phrase and proximity searching ............................................20

Boolean searching ............................................................21

Word variations and wildcards .............................................21

Automatic exclusion of common words ...................................21

Search results .................................................................22

Filtering your search results ................................................22

Printing ........................................................................24

Customer support ...........................................................24

Frequently asked questions ...............................................25

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iv MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE v

THOMSON CPD BUSINESS

SOLUTIONS

Thomson CPD is a leading provider of information solutions in the HR,

payroll, legal, financial and environmental fields, with a strong focus

on legislative compliance and best practice.

We simplify your working life with a range of software packages,

compliance manuals, books and self-study courses. We conduct

seminars on topical issues, have an extensive newsletter service and

are Australian Securities and Investments Commission's official

publisher.

Plus, with a growing number of our products available on CD-ROM or

online, you'll receive information faster, in a flexible, easily accessible

and searchable format.

Complement your Managing Harassment & Discrimination subscription

with subscriptions to the following products:

• Employee Documentation Toolkit — save time and produce

consistent job descriptions, employment contracts and

workplace policies and procedures by simply selecting from

hundreds of sample clauses stored in one central database.

• Practical Workplace Terminations — all the information you

need to handle terminations correctly and effectively is

contained in one resource, guiding you through the maze of

legal, HR and payroll considerations.

• HR Measurement Toolkit — strategically position your HR

function by demonstrating in dollar terms how human resources

contributes to your company's bottom-line. Simply enter your

raw data and let the user-friendly spreadsheets give you

information you need for greater HR leverage in your

organisation.

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>.

Maddocks

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

Glenda Beecher

Glenda practises in all areas of employment, industrial relations and

discrimination law. In this capacity Glenda develops strategies for

effective employment arrangements using a combination of collective

and individual employment agreements and policy guidelines. Glenda

has developed employment policies in areas including discrimination,

harassment, workplace bullying and privacy. She has undertaken

considerable research in the area of discrimination law and is a member

of the Property Council of Australia disability access committee, having

prepared guidelines for government in relation to these obligations.

She has a Master of Laws focussing on discrimination, employment and

industrial law and regularly speaks at conferences and writes for

publications such as HR Monthly.

MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE vii

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vi MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE

Keep informed about the latest strategic trends, government

initiatives and legal developments by subscribing to one of Thomson

CPD's weekly, fortnightly or monthly workplace-specific newsletters:

• HR Report

• Discrimination Alert

• Workforce

• Workplace Intelligence

• Privacy Alert

Expand your area of HR expertise and encourage colleagues to learn

about their roles within HR management. Subscribe to:

• Employment Factbook

• Workplace Solutions: Employment Agreements Manual

• HR Basics for Line Managers

• Payroll Administration Manual

• Premier Payroll Administrator

• Salary Packaging Toolkit

• Termination Payout Calculator

Contact us to find out how we can help you:

Phone: Customer Service Team Free Call 1800 036 186

Fax: 03 9853 0342

Mail: Thomson CPD

35 Cotham Road

Kew Vic 3101

Email: [email protected]

and visit www.cpd.com.au to explore our full range of leading edge

business solutions.

Glenda has provided advice to all levels of state and local government

and to employers in a range of industries including business services,

manufacturing, transport, the contracting and construction sectors.

She has investigated sexual harassment and bullying complaints,

represented employers defending discrimination complaints, sought

exemptions under anti-discrimination and provided strategic advice and

training on how to eliminate unlawful workplace behaviours.

Glenda Beecher

Partner, Workplace Services

LL.B. (Hons), LL.M., B.Juris. (Monash University)

Direct line: +61 3 9240 0855

[email protected]

JUNE 2004

viii MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE 1

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.

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MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE 3

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2 MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE

• Offences.

• Exemptions and exceptions.

• And much more…

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.


• 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.


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.


INSTALLATION

Managing Harassment & Discrimination features a sophisticated

installation program that simplifies the process of installing the

product on your computer.

Insert the CD-ROM in your CD-ROM 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-ROM 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

Thomson CPD's Customer Service Team will be pleased to assist you

with any questions about installing or using Managing Harassment &

Discrimination.

Phone Free Call 1800 036 186 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.


MINIMUM COMPUTER

REQUIREMENTS

Managing Harassment & Discrimination is designed to operate on

personal computers with the following minimum specifications:

• Microsoft Office® 97, 2000, XP, 2003

• Microsoft Windows® operating system 98, 2000, Me, XP, NT 4.0

• Microsoft Internet Explorer® 5.5 or later

• Pentium® 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)

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

If you have any questions, please call Thomson CPD on

Free Call 1800 036 186.

Impact of not registering or re-registering

If you don't register Managing Harassment & Discrimination within 30

days 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.


Free Call 1800 036 186.

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.


Free Call 1800 036 186.

CHANGES TO SERVICE ACCESS

Managing Harassment & Discrimination is a flexible service and consists

of three modules (Prevention, Legalities and Action — see pages 1-3).

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

Free Call 1800 036 186.

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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 CPD on Free Call 1800 036 186.

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 CPD 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.


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.

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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.


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.

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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.

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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).

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.

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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.

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 Thomson CPD's

Customer Service Team on Free Call 1800 036 186.

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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.

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.

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To save the policy or procedure for use


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


require.





Note: Changes made to the saved checklist will not be reflected in the

file as it appears within Managing Harassment & Discrimination.

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Cases

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

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MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE 2120 MANAGING HARASSMENT & DISCRIMINATION USER GUIDE

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.

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.

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.

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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

JUNE 2004


FREQUENTLY ASKED

QUESTIONS

Q When I click the Managing Harassment & Discriminationshortcut, 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 forlocal addresses options are ticked. Automatically detect settingsand Use automatic configuration script should not be ticked.If you have a repetitive problem with these settings, pleasespeak with your IT department before calling Thomson CPD onFree Call 1800 036 186.

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

A Ensure you have clicked your mouse in the content area (not thetable of contents) before selecting File | Print or clicking thePrint button from the menu bar. From the print dialog box,ensure the option Only the selected frame is selected beforeclicking OK.

Q My CD-ROM doesn't have all the modules.

A Access to modules is provided through the registration process asa result of the subscription service for which you have paid. Ifyou cannot access the modules you believe you have subscribedto, or wish to expand your subscription, please contact ThomsonCPD's Customer Service Team on Free Call 1800 036 186.

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

A This means that for the commentary selected, there are noassociated supplementary forms (or other documents). To accessa full list of supplementary content contained within ManagingHarassment & Discrimination, go to the end of each module'stable of contents and select "List of…".


PRINTING

To print Managing Harassment & Discrimination content from Internet

Explorer®, please ensure you click in the content area (not the table of

contents) before selecting File | Print or clicking the Print button from

the menu bar.

From the print dialog box, ensure the option Only the selected frame

is selected before clicking OK.

Page and print settings can be altered in the File | Print | Page setup

dialog box.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Thomson CPD's Customer Service Team will be pleased to assist you with

any questions about installing or using Managing Harassment &

Discrimination.

Please phone Free Call 1800 036 186 Monday to Friday between

8.45am and 5.30pm Eastern Standard Time.

Thomson CPD would appreciate any feedback or suggested

improvements for Managing Harassment & Discrimination. Please

email any comments to <[email protected]> or phone Free Call

1800 036 186.


Documents

Managing Harassment & Discrimination€¦ · She has investigated sexual harassment and bullying complaints, represented employers defending discrimination complaints, sought exemptions