Workplace fairness continues to be a source of complaints as the Queensland Human Rights Commission looks to focus on preventative action, according to the QHRC annual report 2024-25.
QHRC Commissioner Scott McDougall said in the report, tabled in August, that the Commission had identified it needed to move the “primary focus away from reacting to complaints toward preventative action to eliminate discrimination”.
He said major highlights included the passage of the Respect At Work and Other Matters Amendment Act 2024 (RAW Act amendments), which implemented many of the recommendations of the review of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 outlined in the 2022 Building Belonging report.
“The amendments also include key reforms for Queensland, marking a fundamental change in how the Commission approaches its purpose of protecting and promoting freedom, respect, equality and dignity for all people in Queensland,” Mr McDougall said.
“Arguably, the most important of the RAW Act amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (ADA) was the introduction of a positive duty on organisations to take reasonable and proportionate measures to address discrimination and sexual harassment.
“Without a positive duty, the Act relies on individuals who have experienced discrimination to carry the burden of enforcement.”
The report states that “the continued high number and proportion of work-related complaints shows workplace fairness continues to be the most significant area of people’s lives in relation to conduct covered by the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991“.
“This year 42 per cent of accepted discrimination complaints arose in the workplace or when seeking work, down from 51 per cent last year,” it said.
“This year, we received 1529 complaints, an increase on the 1432 complaints received in 2023-24.
Discrimination complaints under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 involve allegations of less favourable treatment based on a protected attribute in an area of public life covered by the Act. The Commission can only accept a complaint if the discrimination is based on one of the listed attributes protected under the Act.
The Commission finalised 1628 complaints, more than the previous year, where 1496 were finalised. This continued the trend from 2024-25 where it finalised more complaints than it received.
The report stated: “Impairment (disability) discrimination continues to be the most commonly accepted complaint, with 305 accepted complaints this year. This is slightly fewer compared to 368 in 2023-24, although the overall percentage of impairment discrimination complaints increased from 59 per cent to 63 per cent of the total accepted and finalised complaints.
“This year 99 of the complaints of impairment discrimination were in the area of work. We received fewer complaints about disability discrimination in education than 2023-24, but significantly more about accommodation.”
Goods and services, state laws and programs, and education were the next most common areas, similar to last year.
Complaints about religious belief or activity increased significantly this year, largely driven by complaints relating to mandatory vaccination directives.
“The Commission continues to seek ways to reduce extended waiting times for assessing complaints after lodgement … “
Commissioner McDougall said along with many other complaints bodies across Australia, the commission had “received high levels of complaints and enquiries since the COVID-19 pandemic”.
“The Commission continues to seek ways to reduce extended waiting times for assessing complaints after lodgement, with an Enquiries and Dispute Resolution team that is committed and efficient,” he said.
The report states: “In 2023, due to the very high volumes of complaints about work-related vaccine mandates, the Commission stayed over 250 complaints alleging discrimination and/or human rights breaches due to vaccine mandates, pending the outcome of several “test cases” that complainants had asked the Commission to refer to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. The Commission received a significant amount of further COVID-19-related complaints that were not stayed.
“Several cases in 2024 provided tribunal and judicial guidance on the issues relating to work-related vaccine mandates, so the Commission lifted the stay on these complaints and assessed and finalised over 400 of them, leaving a small number still to be finalised.
“The Commission established a project team dedicated to this work, which due to its complexity and volume, required substantial resources.
“The Commission accepted a small proportion of these complaints as alleging a breach under the Acts, and the large number of these complaints that were finalised was a significant factor in the Commission accepting a lower percentage of complaints this year compared to last year.”
The report stated the continuing high numbers of complaints being lodged meant extended delays continued in assessing complaints after lodgement.
“As a result, many of the complaints dealt with this financial year were lodged the previous year,” it said.
Of the finalised complaints – 568 were accepted and 1060 were not accepted with the majority of those (515) not covered by legislation, 303 were withdrawn, uncontactable or dealt with elsewhere and 238 deemed frivolous, vexatious misconceived or lacking in substance.
Of those accepted, 238 were resolved with a variety of outcomes such as damages, an apology, training, change in policy, explanation accepted, and service and/or accessibility improvements.
The commission accepted 81 complaints about sexual harassment, down from 95 in 2023-24. Also down were the number of accepted complaints of vilification 22 in 2024-25, compared with 28 last year.
The percentage of complaints about age discrimination increased from five per cent to seven per cent.
Commissioner McDougall said the commission continued its efforts to increase awareness through “education, engagement and communication activities”.
“The education team delivered 174 training sessions (in person and via video conference) to 2844 people across Queensland, and provided online learning to an additional 22,883 Queenslanders, reaching 25,727 people in total. Education is an essential element of prevention.”
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