1 in 5 Australians face discrimination

March 26 2002 - A new international workplace survey has found that more than one in five Australians believe they have suffered discrimination in the workplace, and the majority of these say they are still living with the consequences of this discrimination.

The survey by global recruitment agency, Kelly Services sought the views of almost 3,000 people in four countries - Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore.

The Australia@work survey found that 21% of Australian workers had experienced some form of discrimination in the workplace based on gender, race or other attribute.

This compared with 26% in New Zealand, 22% in Singapore, and 16% in Malaysia.

In Australia, a total of 25% of women had experienced discrimination compared with 16% of males.

Yet only a small proportion of those who had suffered discrimination believed the issue had been properly dealt with. Only 13% of those who experienced discrimination said the problem had been adequately addressed. A total of 15% left their job as a result of the discrimination, while 41% believed it had not been adequately dealt with.

Kelly Services Managing Director, Dianne Ward said that the figures highlighted the significant, long term consequences of allowing discrimination to go unchecked in the workplace.

"This can be devastating for individuals who may be forced to leave their job or live with the long term impact."

"But it can also be disastrous for an organisation which either ignores the issue or allows problems to fester in the belief that they will somehow disappear," Ms Ward said.

"Any organization with a problem of this magnitude will suffer a host of direct and indirect costs. These may include staff turnover, absenteeism, poor morale, low productivity, poor reputation, and also the possibility of civil claims and penalties arising from breach of anti discrimination law," she continued.

"It is critical that managers ensure that employees fully understand their rights, and that managers faced with workplace discrimination take immediate steps to remedy the situation."

"Employees will themselves be looking to see that instances of discrimination are handled decisively, sensitively and effectively," Ms Ward said.

The survey did not show much difference in the rates of discrimination experienced by employees in different sectors:

- production, transport and labouring (25 per cent);
- clerical, sales and service workers (24 per cent);
- managers and professionals (23 per cent);
- associate professionals and tradespeople (22 per cent).

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