Corporate structures

If your organisation is part of a group of related entities, you may need to report as a corporate group. This page explains how WGEA defines corporate groups and what this means for your reporting obligations.

A corporate group is made up of a controlling corporation (parent company) and one or more subsidiary organisations.

• The controlling corporation is usually the parent company.
• The subsidiaries are the other companies or entities it owns or controls.

You are considered a corporate group for WGEA reporting if:

• There are 100 or more employees across the whole group, and
• The parent and subsidiaries are related bodies corporate under the Corporations Act 2001.

For private sector employers, these corporate structures include privately owned and publicly listed organisations, such as:

• registered higher education providers
• a natural person, or a body or association (whether incorporated or not)
• sole traders
• partnerships
• proprietary limited (Pty Ltd) companies
• trusts
• publicly owned or listed companies
• not for profits

A corporate group becomes a Relevant Employer when the combined employee count across all entities is 100 or more. 

• In this case, all employing entities within the group are required to register and report to WGEA, regardless of their individual entity size.
• Parent company information should be included in the corporate group's organisational structure when registering to report with WGEA, even if the parent company does not employ staff. 

How employee counts in corporate groups work

• When counting employees for WGEA’s purposes, a parent company is considered to employ the Australian employees of its subsidiaries.
• If the corporate group is a relevant employer, the parent company and all employing subsidiaries (entities) within that corporate group must be registered with WGEA regardless of their individual employee count.
  • In other words, if a subsidiary has its own ABN and 100 or more employees, it is a Relevant Employer both:
    • As part of the corporate group, and
    • In its own right.

If the combined total number of employees across the corporate group (parent organisation and its subsidiaries) falls below 80, you may no longer meet the definition of a relevant employer. In this case:

• You may no longer be required to report to WGEA.
• You must notify WGEA of the change in your employee count.

For further information, visit Who needs to report? 

Some documents are only generated for subsidiaries that qualify as relevant employers. 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.

There are two options for how corporate groups lodge their gender equality report.

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.

What is a submission group?

A submission group allows entities within the same corporate structure to report together if they:

• belong to the same organisation, and
• have the same or similar gender equality policies, strategies and actions.  

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 separately.

Note: 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 gender equality policies, strategies and actions 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.

You must let WGEA know if your group changes. This includes:

• Mergers or demergers
• A new controlling corporation or ABN
• A business being sold or closed
• A change in group reporting approach (e.g. from group to separate)

If your organisation has changed:

• Update your structure in the WGEA Portal
• If needed, contact WGEA for support at support@wgea.gov.au