Legal
and policy framework
Whole of Government policies
This Framework sets directions for active future development of Equity & Diversity (incorporating EEO) in the ACT Public Service from which agencies will be able to build and develop their own policies and plans that allow all employees to work to their full potential within an equal and diverse environment. Included in the Framework is a Maturity Model that will allow agencies to track their progress against various Equity & Diversity outcomes and targets.
To download the Framework, visit the Publications page of the PSM website.
Overarching ACT Public service documents
An agency specific Equity and Diversity
plan typically reflects the following key documents; Public
Sector Management Act, ACT Public Service People Strategy,
ACT HR Strategy and ACT Public Service Equity and Diversity
Framework.
See Legal Framework and Extracts for details of this scheme
ACT Public Service People strategy
2005-07
The ACT Public Service People strategy 2005-07 articulates goals and strategies relating to ‘people’ based whole-of-government strategies/frameworks. Two out of the five key goals of the strategy are explicitly linked to Equity and Diversity.
- Key Theme 2 “Strengthening Organsiational Resilience” has as its outcome “[w]orkplaces and cultures provide safe working environments for a highly committed, motivated and productive public service.”
- Key Theme 3, “Sustaining Community Confidence” has as its outcome “[a] public service that has the confidence of the ACT community.”
These sections are linked to Equity and Diversity in the descriptions of the major initiatives that fall under the key themes.
The ACT HR Strategy explains how HR related frameworks are intended to be used within the ACT Public Service. The document sketches how different whole of government HR frameworks are integrated and reported against. This document integrates Equity and Diversity with other HR frameworks.
Concurrent frameworks and practice areas
Equity and Diversity integrates with the other practice areas which are part of the Strategic Human Resources Planning Framework. Equity and diversity can not work alone.
In particular, the following current and emerging issues are worth noting in other HR practice areas:
Injury prevention and management
Equity and Diversity is strongly linked to psychological well being. Equity and Diversity is a fundamental aspect of the cultural climate of an organisation as it produces an environment which is devoid of discriminatory practices and which encourages the valuing of individual difference. Psychological injury is of significant concern because “Psychological injury claims are a significant driver of workers’ compensation premiums. In 2003-2004, Australian Government claims for psychological injury accounted for 7% of total workers’ compensation claims, though nearly 27% of total claim costs. Costs of psychological injury claims are considerably higher than other injuries because they tend to involve longer periods of time-off work and higher medical, legal and other claim payments.” (http://www.comcare.gov.au/psychological-injury-portal/costs.html)
Equity and diversity interact with recruitment and placement in the following ways:
- Ensuring that recruitment and selection processes are equitable and therefore fair, transparent and merit-based.
- That the ACT PS reflects the diversity of the community and engages modified selection criteria’s for target groups when required. An example of this is the recruitment of people with a disability through the graduate program.
Workforce planning deals with specific areas of equity and diversity. In particular it focuses upon the succession issues inherent in the increase in retiring senior members of the workforce and the overall decrease in people able to take their place.
The values of the ACT PS include “treat members of the public and other public employees with courtesy and sensitivity to their rights, duties and aspirations“. As such, equity and diversity is essential to the enactment of the values of the ACT PS.
There is a co-dependent relationship between people planning and equity and diversity planning and also between analysis and EEO data collection. ‘People planning’ includes succession planning, target group recruitment and inter-generational planning.
Learning and Development links to Equity and Diversity in two different ways:
- Learning and Development opportunities whose content is regarding Equity and Diversity issues. These will be in a wide ranging in structure and focus.
- Provision of Learning and Development that reflects the diversity of the groups engaged in these programs.
Plans informing Equity and Diversity
As can be seen by the matrix, there are many plans that inform equity and diversity. Some of these are only applicable to particular agencies, while others have more widespread application. Key plans for all agencies are those which deal with the targeted Equal Employment Opportunity groups of:
- women (women’s plan),
- culturally linguistically diverse (Multicultural framework and Facing up to racism),
- people with a disability (employment framework for people with a disability) and
- Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders (Indigenous partnerships plan and facing up to racism).
Typically these plans have reporting requirements for agencies.
Specific Employment Initiatives
See Implementation for information on Specific Initiatives for People with a Disability, Indigenous Australian and Women.
Mature Age Employment Strategy
The Mature Age Employment Strategy for the ACT is inclusive of the government, non-government and private sector. It aims to improve options for people over the age of 45 to continue to participate in the workforce, and to encourage flexibility and innovation in establishing new pathways for the attraction and retention of older workers. It is a direct response to concerns regarding the ageing population and the pressures that this will put upon the labor force.
The ACT Government is also examining alternative entry-level
recruitment programs. These programs may include cadetships,
traineeships, sponsored school leavers, interns and specific
programs for employees with less than one years’ experience
within the ACTPS. As of May 2006, this program is still in
draft.