Page 39 - Learner Guide - BSBCMM201 - Communicate in the workplace.doc

Communicate in the workplace

5.5 Prejudice and discrimination

Prejudice means to pre-judge someone or something without knowing all the facts.
Prejudices are generally negative and relate to differences in lifestyle, language,
gender, religion, age, abilities, race or culture.

The opinions are often based on stereotyped and generalized images and can
easily divide the people. The prejudice must be recognized as an attitude. When this
attitude is translated into action, it becomes discrimination. There are laws in
Australia specially designed to protect people from discrimination. The federal laws
that are in action are:

• Age Discrimination Act 2004
• Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986
• Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• Racial Discrimination Act 1975
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984
• Privacy Act 1988
• Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012
• Work Health Safety (WHS) Act 2011

Apart from these acts, individual workplace will have its own policies and guidelines
on discrimination. The acts will guide a person to:

• To take care of health and safety at workplace.
• To take appropriate care that the acts or omissions must not adversely affect the
health and safety of other people.
• To comply with the instructions delivered by the manager.
• To cooperate with health and safety related policies and procedures.
• Must not bully, intimidate, harass or assault anyone at the workplace.

Enterprise guidelines

Legislation specifies what you can and cannot do at the workplace. Enterprise
guidelines specifies what an employer wants you to do to ensure that you comply
with the law. These guidelines ensure consistency among the employees and help
the employers to protect business from litigation.

Enterprise guidelines are related to practical activities such as how to complete the
forms, whom to report in an emergency, when and how to submit a purchase
requisition, how to report technical faults etc. Always make sure that your behaviour
is consistent with your enterprise guidelines.

35