The corporate structure of an entity refers to the way it is set up and operates. This might include how its different entities relate to one another. The corporate structure affects how it registers for WGEA reporting and prepares and lodges workplace gender equality data to WGEA under the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (the Act).

A corporate group is where a group of legal entities (subsidiaries) are controlled by a parent entity. A corporate group structure will affect the way organisations report to WGEA.

Please note:

• When the employee count across all entities of a corporate group is 100 or more, the corporate group is a Relevant Employer and so must report to WGEA.
• For the purposes of the employee count, a parent company will be taken to employ the Australian employees of its subsidiaries.
• If the corporate group is a relevant employer, all entities within that corporate group must be registered with WGEA regardless of their individual entity size.
• If a subsidiary has its own ABN and has an employee count of 100 or more, it is considered a relevant employer as part of the corporate group, but also in its own right.
• If the corporate group’s total employee count falls below 80 for 6 or more months in a reporting period, the corporate group is no longer required to report.

Important: certain documents are only generated for subsidiaries that qualify as a relevant employer. For information about reports and documents available for corporate groups, refer to Document generation.

For information about how being a corporate group might affect lodgement, refer to:

• Lodging your report as a corporate group
• Submission groups 

A joint venture is a business arrangement where two or more companies share ownership and control of a separate entity.

The companies associated with joint ventures often have requirements to lodge reports under the Act.

For example, Company X is a joint venture, and Company A and Company B each own 50 percent. If their employee count is 100 or more, then both A and B are considered relevant employers under the Act.

In this example, if Company X has 100 or more employees, it:

• is a relevant employer; and
• reports as a standalone entity, separate from its owners (Company A and B).

However, if one company (e.g. Company A) has more control than the other (Company B), then Company X may be considered a subsidiary of Company A.

See Submission groups for more information on how being a joint venture might affect lodgement.

Corporate groups and joint ventures often have multiple entities that need to lodge reports to WGEA each year. To simplify reporting, these entities can be grouped into one or more submission groups.

A submission group allows entities within the same corporate structure to enrol in the same reporting program if they are part of the same organisation and have similar workplace policies and strategies.  A corporate group or joint venture can choose to:

• Report as a single submission for the entire group, or
• Create multiple submission groups if different parts of the group meet the criteria.

When a corporate group registers for the first time, all recorded entities are automatically placed into one submission.

Managing submission groups

• Employers can contact WGEA via email or support request to update their submission groups.
• The parent company is ultimately responsible for ensuring all required submissions are compliant. 
  • If any subsidiary is non-compliant, the parent company will also be considered non-compliant.

Ensure that all subsidiaries that employ staff are included in the submission(s) to WGEA.

Questionnaire

• Responses must cover all ABNs in the submission accurately.
• Where a conflict exists in policies and strategies employers must list the minimum available to all employees covered in the submission.
• Each questionnaire section contains a free text response that can be used to provide additional context as to how it was answered.
• For further information, refer to Employer Questionnaire.

Workforce Management Statistics

• Complete one file per employing ABN in the submission group.
• If a group file is uploaded against one ABN, the data will be taken to be pertaining only to that specific ABN.
• Important: The section will not be complete until each employing ABN has a file uploaded.
• For further information, refer to Workforce Management Statistics.

Workplace Profile

• Choose to include employees together in consolidated file(s) or upload a separate file for each ABN in the submission group.
• For further information, refer to Workplace profile.