OEEO - Definitions of Terms

Definitions

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Direct discrimination

Direct discrimination occurs when a person or group is treated less favourably on the basis of a particular attribute or characteristic defined in the Act. The attributes or characteristics defined in the Act are sex; age; race; pregnancy; marital status; family responsibility or family status; religious conviction; political conviction and impairment.

Discrimination

Discrimination, according to the Macquarie Dictionary, is the act of discriminating or the making of a difference in particular cases. It is the drawing of distinctions.

Employment type

The employment type of an employee relates to whether the employee was employed on a permanent, fixed term or casual basis and to whether they worked full-time or part-time.

Permanent: An employee employed for an indefinite period of time, usually under the terms and conditions of a relevant award or agreement.
Fixed term: An employee employed for a finite period of time.
Full-time: Those employees who normally work the agreed or award hours for a full-time employee in their occupation. If the agreed or award hours do not apply, employees are regarded as full-time if they ordinarily work 35 hours or more per week.
Part-time: Those employees who are not full-time as defined above.
Casual: Those employees who are paid on an hourly rate and receive a special loading, usually in lieu of leave entitlements. Casual employees are usually covered under the terms and conditions of a relevant award or agreement.
Other: Those employees who do not fit into any of the above groups.

Equal opportunity

As section 3 of the WA Equal Opportunity Act (The Act) states, equal opportunity is concerned with:

The elimination of discrimination on the basis of the grounds covered in the Act and
The promotion of the recognition and acceptance of the equality of all persons regardless of sex, race, religious or political convictions, impairments or ages

Equity index

The equity index is a measure of "compression" - the extent to which a given occupational group is primarily to be found at the lower classification levels. The calculation is usually performed for women as their numbers are such that a meaningful index can be calculated. Equity indices can be calculated for other groups if their representation is sufficient. The Office of EEO has electronic calculators you can use to calculate the Equity indices for your organisation. Contact us for details.

Fairness of Representation
Any attempt to ascertain the "fairness" of the representation of women in a given occupational group must examine a number of factors. The first of these is the overall availability of women with the skills needed to perform the functions demanded of the group. That is, unless the labour force contains an adequate number of qualified women within a given occupational area, it is not reasonable to expect to see a high proportion of women employed in that field within the public service. Nevertheless, whatever the actual proportion of women employed in a given group (department, etc), for representation to be equitable those women should be employed in equal proportions at all levels of the group.

An index below 100 denotes that women in the group are "compressed" into the lower working levels; the lower the index the greater the degree of compression. Conversely, an index above 100 shows that women in that group are well represented at the upper classification levels.

Genuine occupational qualification

The Act makes provision for the employment of individuals of a particular sex, race, age or who may have an impairment, if their sex, race, age or impairment is a genuine occupational qualification. For example, participation in a dramatic performance may require a person of a particular race for purposes of authenticity.
Sections 27, 50, 66S and 66ZP of the Act can be consulted for more details.

Grievance

A grievance is any type of problem, concern or complaint arising from or related to the workplace.

Indigenous Australians

Persons of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people and are accepted as such by the community in which they live.

Indirect discrimination

Indirect discrimination is concerned with policies and practices that may appear neutral but that have a disproportionate impact on a particular group. Indirect discrimination does not involve intention or even awareness and may result from the continuation of past practices or policies.

Job category (Universities)

This variable was introduced to differentiate between occupational level and salary level. The academic and higher education workforces have different job categories. These are listed below and are similar to those used by the Affirmative Action Agency:
Academics

Level E	Professor & above, Chancellor, Vice Chancellor
Level D	Associate professor & above
Level C	Senior lecturer
Level B	Lecturer
Level A	Associate lecturer/tutor

Higher education workers

HEW>10	Senior executives
HEW 10	Senior program, research or administrative manager
HEW 9	Researcher of national or international standing; manager, senior school or faculty administrator
HEW 8	Researcher of national standing; manager, senior school or faculty administrator
HEW 7	Senior librarian; technical manager; senior professional or scientific officer; senior administrator in small faculty
HEW 6	Experienced graduate or professional; line manager; experienced technical specialist and/or technical supervisor
HEW 5	Graduate or professional; line manager; experienced technical officer
HEW 4	Technical officer; technician; clerical/secretarial above Level 3: Advanced Tradesperson
HEW 3	Tradesperson; technical assistant; technical trainee; clerical/secretarial
HEW 2	Clerk, security patrol officer
HEW 1	Cleaner; labourer; trainee for Level 2 duties; (staff outside HEW award including junior, trainee and apprentice staff).

Managing diversity

Managing diversity is concerned with making the most of an organisation's workforce to improve products and services delivered to customers. Whereas EEO is primarily concerned with the needs of individuals, managing diversity focuses on the needs of organisations.

Measures intended to achieve equality

Equal opportunity does not entail treating all people in the same way. The Act allows employers to put in place measures intended to achieve equality where there has been past discrimination and disadvantage has resulted. This applies to people of one sex, those from a different race, those people who may have an impairment and those of a particular age or age group.

Sections 31, 51, 66R, and 66ZP of the Act can be consulted for more details.

Measures of equity

The Office of EEO has a range of resources available, including data analysis tools, to help agencies measure equity in their own organisation. Contact the Office for more information.

Management profile (public sector)

Measures the managerial responsibility in an organisation according to the top three tiers in the organisational management structure. It is linked to decision-making responsibility rather than salary. The definitions recognise that a range of possible management structures exist, depending on the nature of the business conducted by your organisation, its size and geographical and corporate structure. While all organisations will have Tier 1 Management, some smaller organisations or those with flatter structures may have only two tiers of management. Trainee managers or staff whose role is purely supervisory are not included.
Tier 1 management

directs and is responsible for the organisation and its development as a whole
has ultimate control of, and responsibility for, the upper layers of management
typical titles include CEO, general manager, executive director, commissioner

Tier 2 management

is directly below the top level of the hierarchy
assists Tier 1 Management by implementing organisational plans
is directly responsible for leading and directing the work of other managers of functional departments below them
may be responsible for managing professional and specialist staff

Tier 3 management

is responsible to Tier 2 Management
formulates policies and plans for their area of control and manages a budget and staffing resources
is the interface between Tier 2 management and lower level managers
does not include professional and graduates, eg. Engineers, medical practitioners, accountants, etc unless they have a primary management function

Managerial responsibility (Universities)

Measures managerial responsibility in an organisation according to the top four layers in the organisational management structure. It is linked to decision-making responsibility rather than salary.

The levels used are:

M1 Top level of managerial responsibility in your organisation
M2 Second from top level of managerial responsibility in your organisation
M3 Third from top level of managerial responsibility in your organisation
M4 Fourth from top level of managerial responsibility in your organisation

Nature of disability

Sight – Use braille, low vision aids or other special technology such as appropriate computers or screens (Note: Does not include use of glasses or contact lenses).
Speech – Use aids such as word processors or communication boards in order to be understood or need extra time to be understood.
Hearing – Use aids such as volume control, TTY (telephone typewriter), Auslan interpreter, or hearing help card in order to hear.
Learning – Use specific support and training to perform the job or need more than average time to learn some parts of a job (eg have an intellectual disability). Have difficulty with reading or writing eg dyslexia.
Use of arms and hands – Use specific equipment (eg modified keyboard, hands-free telephone or need extra time for handling objects).
Use of Legs – Use aids or need extra time for mobility (eg wheelchairs, crutches).
Long term medical, physical or psychiatric condition – Any long term health or medical condition that regularly restricts or limits activities (eg requires regular medication or absences due to illness or cannot perform some functions due to health and safety considerations).
Other – Any other ongoing disability with an employment restriction.

People from culturally diverse backgrounds

People born in countries other than those categorised by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as Main English Speaking (MES) countries (ie Australia, United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and United States of America).

People with disabilities (PWD)

This includes anyone with an ongoing disability who has an employment restriction due to their disability that requires any of the following:

Restriction in the type of work they can do
Modified hours of work or time schedules
Adaptations to the workplace or work area
Specialised equipment
Extra time for mobility or tasks
Ongoing assistance or supervision to carry out duties.

Persons

The data reported by organisations to the Office of EEO relates to the number of persons employed by public authorities at 30 June each year, and not to the number of full-time equivalents.

Racial harassment

Section 49A of the Act makes harassment on the ground of race unlawful. The Act defines racial harassment as threats, abuse, insults or taunts to which a person's objection has resulted in their disadvantage in employment or work, or where they have reason to believe that such an objection may lead to disadvantage in employment or work.

Salary profile

Data relating to salary profiles by EEO groups relates only to permanent and fixed term employees according to their current equivalent annual base wage or salary, where the equivalent salary is that salary which would be paid to a full-time employee at that level.
Included are:

equivalent annual rate of pay as specified in the award, enterprise or workplace agreement
salary incremental step
ordinary time earnings
higher duties allowance for ordinary time hours
base wage or salary for employees on unpaid leave

Excluded are:

penalty payments,
shift and other remunerative allowances,
overtime pay

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is unwanted and unwelcome behaviour of a sexual nature. This could be in the form of written and verbal comments, jokes or remarks, cartoons and posters, offensive looks or gestures, unwanted physical contact, and unwanted electronic communications eg e-mails and screen savers; and the person being harassed has reason to believe that rejecting, refusing or objecting to the conduct would disadvantage them in some way.

Unlawful discrimination

Unlawful discrimination refers to differentiation on the basis of attributes described in the Act so as to disadvantage some groups or individuals.

Victimisation

Section 67 of the Act makes is it unlawful for a person to subject or threaten to subject another person to any detriment where that person has made a complaint or proposes to make a complaint under the Act.