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Discrimination Commission and Tribunal Procedure Information Pack



INTRODUCTION

Please note that the information contained in this pack is of a general nature only and it is not intended to replace legal advice about your specific claim.

The Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland (“Commission”) and Anti-Discrimination Tribunal Queensland (“Tribunal”) have been established to handle complaints under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (Qld) (“Act”). Similar provisions exist under federal legislation and are dealt with by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and federal courts. This pack contains practical information about procedure in the Commission and Tribunal. You should refer to information sheets available directly from the Commission about the law of discrimination. These are available on the Commission’s website www.adcq.qld.gov.au.

It is important at the outset to note that there is no general law against all discrimination. It is necessary for any complaint to be brought within the scope of the Act. Please refer to the Commission’s guide about what may comprise discrimination. In brief, the Act contains prohibitions on specific forms of direct and indirect discrimination (such as age, sex, religious belief or activity) in specific areas (such as work and the provision of accommodation). In addition, there is a general prohibition on sexual harassment and vilification. The guide produced by the Commission provides more detail about these matters. In this information pack, the word “discrimination” is used to refer to all forms of conduct prohibited by the Act.

 
INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION


Pre and post WorkChoices


Rob Stevenson

Partner, Nathan Lawyers


INDUSTRIAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION pre and post WorkChoices1

By Rob Stevenson

Partner, Nathan Lawyers2


1. INTRODUCTION


A system of industrial dispute resolution has evolved over the last 100 years in which the state and federal industrial commissions have played a pre-eminent (almost parental) role. The commissions have wide ranging powers to prevent and settle industrial disputes by compulsory conciliation and arbitration and a significant body of law has developed in this area.

Since the election of the federal coalition government in 1996, there have been attempts to give greater emphasis to the resolution of disputes at the workplace level without the involvement of the industrial commissions. These efforts have occurred during an extended period of industrial peace and economic prosperity.3


The advent of the Workplace Relations Amendment (WorkChoices) Act 2005 (Cth) effectively sweeps away a body of law and practice which has developed over the last 100 years and seeks to remove the commissions from their prominent involvement in workplace dispute resolution whether on an industrial or individual basis.


This paper considers the pre and post WorkChoices systems and the implications that WorkChoices has for dispute resolution in Australia as well as posing some practical problems for resolution.4

 


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