Under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Act), relevant employers must comply with certain notification and access requirements after lodging a Gender Equality Report.
These requirements relate to how and when a relevant employer must share certain documents from their Gender Equality Report, and who they must share them with.
How do you comply?
To comply with the notification and access requirements, an employer must complete the following tasks within the timeframes outlined in the below table. Please see Inform and provide access to employees and members or shareholders, below, for more information.
| Notification and access requirement | Who to share with or inform | When to share |
|---|---|---|
| Make Public Report accessible | Employees and shareholders or members of the employer | As soon as reasonably practicable* after your report is lodged |
| Inform employee organisations that your report has been lodged | Employee organisations with members in your workplace | As soon as reasonably practicable* after your report is lodged |
| Inform relevant groups of the opportunity to comment on your Public Report | Employees and employee organisations | As soon as reasonably practicable* after your report is lodged |
| CEO must share Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report | Governing body (or bodies), if any | As soon as reasonably practicable* after receiving them |
* ’As soon as reasonably practicable' means that you must complete the requirements listed above at the first available opportunity.
Documents and reports to be shared
Once a relevant employer successfully lodges a Gender Equality Report, WGEA will provide the following documents. These documents must be generated and downloaded from the 'Data and Insights' tab of the Employer Portal.
Standalone employers (single ABN) will receive:
| Name | Covers | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Public Report – Questionnaire | The ABN | Once the Questionnaire, WPP and WMS are ‘completed’ with no data anomalies |
| Public Report – Employee data tables | The ABN | Once the Questionnaire, WPP and WMS are ‘completed’ with no data anomalies |
| Executive Summary | The ABN | Once the Gender Equality Report is successfully lodged |
| Industry Benchmark Report | The ABN | 2–3 months after the lodgement period ends (WGEA will email reporting contacts to let them know) |
Corporate group employers will receive:
| Name | Covers | Available |
|---|---|---|
| Public Report – Questionnaire | All ABNs in the submission | Once the Questionnaire, WPP and WMS are ‘completed’ with no data anomalies |
| Public Report – Employee data tables (submission group) | Set of 3 tables for each relevant employer ABN in the submission | Once the Questionnaire, WPP and WMS are ‘completed’ with no data anomalies |
| Public report – Employee data tables (group) | Set of 3 tables which cover data from the entire corporate group | Once the Questionnaire, WPP and WMS are ‘completed’ with no data anomalies for all relevant employers within the corporate group |
| Executive Summary | One report for each relevant employer ABN | Once the Gender Equality Report is successfully lodged |
| Corporate Group Executive Summary | One report covering the entire corporate group | When available |
| Industry Benchmark Report | One report for each relevant employer ABN within the corporate group (companion to the ABN-level Executive Summary) | 2–3 months after the lodgement period ends (WGEA will email reporting contacts to let them know) |
For further information, refer to
Inform and provide access to employees and members or shareholders
Employees
Notification to employees could occur through an organisation’s normal means of communication with employees, including employee newsletters, workplace meetings and any other appropriate existing consultative means.
Make sure to use a method that transmits the information about the organisation's Gender Equality Report to all employees.
Members or shareholders
In the case of shareholders of a public company, given there may be more limited opportunities for communication, consider notifying this group in the next available annual report and via the employer’s website.
Inform employee organisations
Relevant employers must take all reasonable steps to inform each employee organisation, where members are employees, that the Gender Equality Report has been lodged.
Timing of notification
Employers may choose to wait until the 28-day hold period has ended before informing employee organisations, as this allows time to identify and make any necessary edits to the Public Report.
Note: the 28-day hold period is only available to employers who have lodged their report during the lodgement period or within an approved extension period. Refer to Editing a report after lodgement for more information.
Scope of notification
This requirement does not mean an intensive effort is required to identify all possible employee organisations. Employers must notify organisations they could reasonably be expected to know about. This includes:
- employee organisations that are parties to an enterprise agreement
- employee organisations to which membership fees are paid via payroll deductions.
Informing of the opportunity to comment on a report
A relevant employer must inform the employees or employee organisation that comments on the report may be given to the employer or WGEA.
For further information, refer to Comment on reports.
Sharing your Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report with the governing body
The CEO (or equivalent) of a relevant employer must share the Executive Summary (or Summaries) and Industry Benchmark Report (or Reports) with the board or governing body (if any) as soon as practicable after receiving the documents.
- The Executive Summary is available as soon as you have lodged your Gender Equality Report.
- The Industry Benchmark Report is available approximately 2–3 months after the lodgement period ends. Reporting contacts will be notified via email when this report is available.
When your Industry Benchmark Report is available for generation, if you have not yet provided your Executive Summary to your Governing body, you must provide these documents together.
You will need to confirm that your CEO or equivalent shared your Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report with your governing body when you complete your next Questionnaire.
For further information, refer to Executive Summary and Industry Benchmark Report.