HRMG302 HRM Report: Analysis of Workplace Discrimination Issues

This report analyzes the issue of workplace discrimination in Australia, focusing on gender pay gaps, sexism, and the treatment of disabled employees. The report examines the perspectives of both employers and employees, highlighting the prevalence of gender-based pay disparities and the underrepresentation of women and disabled individuals in certain industries. It explores the implications of these issues for organizations, including brand reputation and employee turnover, and considers the political, social, and economic contexts that contribute to the problem. The report references current news media and academic sources to support its findings, and it also includes the author's personal observations on the topic. The report highlights the impact of societal norms and governmental policies on workplace discrimination, emphasizing the need for greater awareness and proactive measures to address these challenges.

Running head: HRM
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The term Workplace discrimination can be defined as the process of discrimination on
the basis of age, gender, religion, race as well as national origin of the employees in a workplace.
Workplace favouritism takes place while an employer takes negative action against an individual
who is an employee or an candidate who possess the potential to become a skilled employees due
to the above mentioned attributes. When it comes to workplace discrimination in Australia,
workplace discrimination against potential disabled employees takes place frequently. According
to a survey, only 52 percent of the total number of disabled individual in Australia is employed
compared to 83 percent of all working age people. The nation ranks 21st amongst 29th nations in
employment rates of disabled people. Another major employee discrimination issue includes
lower paying rate of women in Australia compared to that of men. In the year 2018, the full-time
gender pay gap in Australia is 14.6 percent and women make on average 244.80 dollar per week
less than men. In the following paragraph I will analyse a major employee discrimination issue
that has been highlighted very recently in Australia news Media. According to www.abc.net.au
(2019), the largest difference organizations of Australia are failing to attract a well as retain
female employees due to high workplace sexism as well as discrimination that are persistence in
some major sections of the industry that is multi-billion-dollar in nature.
Employers’ perspective
The national gender pay gap in Australia has maintained stability at 14 percent with men with
average earning of 241.50 dollars more per week compared to women. According to
www.bbc.com (2019), unlike the pay inequality that compares the wages of men as well as
woman performing the same task in a workplace. A gender pay difference at an organization is

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not illegal, in spite of the potential to reflect discrimination against women. According to a good
number of employers, the hike in salary has been provided on the basis of the performance of an
employee irrespective of their gender. Thus, one cannot blame an employer to discriminate an
employee on the basis of his or gender while making payment on the basis of their performance.
However, I personally have undergone scenarios, where the performance evaluation of the
employees are not entirely based on their performance but are biased towards the male
employees. Researchers have pointed out that the management of several institutions in Australia
prefers to recruit male employees over female employees. According to (www.abc.net.au 2019),
a significant number of Australian businesses are found to be recruiting male employees who are
unmarried, as per the a survey by workplace management consultancy Kronos. The chief reason
behind is that male employees are more likely work overtime and can be opted to in an
emergency situation compared to the women employees. Moreover, female employees, often
after marriage tends to leave the organization which in turn results in loss in the revenue of the
organization. Winchester and Browning (2015) have pointed our additional leave facilities that
an organization is stipulated to provide to the female employees can be considered as another
major reason behind the preference of male employees over female employees by the
organization.
Employees’ perspective
According to an analysis of the 20 largest military firms of the country it has been found
that only one out of five employees is women. It has also been found that women who are
working in the Australian defence industry are resigning from their job at excessively high rates
compared to the male counterparts. According to majority of the employees’ sexual harassment
as well as gender biased decision can be considered as two of the major reason behind this high

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rate of attrition. Along with discrepancy in the salary between a male and female employee n the
mentioned industry is also resulting in the huge turnover.
According to (Martin 2019), discrimination can be considered as one of the major reasons
behind driving the gender pay gap in Australia. Where only 25 percent of the employees were
found to leave job for child or elderly car, the rest 75 percent employees were found to have
decided to leave their job for issues like sexual discrimination, harassment, favourism and
unequal payment. As per my opinion, the key drivers of the gender gap in Australia include
gender discrimination, occupational segregation as well as interruptions such as child care and
caring for elderly family members. The sole concept of men being the bread earner and women
being the housekeeper from ages have also impacted o the concept of the lower grade pay of
women compared to men. The patriarch society of the nation and lack of effective polices from
the side of both federal as well as local government has been pointed out to be a chief reason as
per several employees.
Implications for the organisation
While viewing the gender pay gap rate in Australia, it can be understood that the rate of gender
pay gap is steady and thus it can be clearly understood that majority of the small to medium scale
organizations are least bothered about this issue. However when it comes to popular
organizations like Woolworth, Wesfermers and others, they are paying serious attention to this
problem. For instance, the employment of the disabled employee has got increased in wools
worth by a significant percentage. More than 285 employees who possess disability had been
recruited in the mentioned nation (Australia 2019). Not only this, the organization has also opted
for lowering the gender pay gap. Being the largest retail organization of Australia, the

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organization is highly concern about the gender pay gap. As a company with 200,000 employees,
a significant part of Woolsworth’s strategy is focussed on the employees working in the
organization, along with initiatives for gender equality like women employees in management
along with closing the pay gap and significant progress has already been seen (Australia, 2019).
Political, social and economic context
As an employee in a renowned Australia organization, I believe that that the political
instability along with constant deterioration between the relationships of the nation with its
neighbouring states is resulting in lack of growth of its business organization. Considering the
fact that this in turn impose negative impact on the revenue of the Australian organizations, a
god number of organizations are focusing n recruiting employees, who will ready to perform for
the company over time (Kennedy et al. 2017). That is why a good number of organizations
refrain from recruiting disabled employees. The maternity leaved other additional leaves that an
organization is supposed to pay an female employee, can be considered as another major reason
behind lack of interest of organizations to recruit female employee. When it comes to lower
grade pay, the patriarch society and the concept of men to be the bread earner for a family can be
considered to be two of the chief reason. Along with this, another major factor includes, majority
of the women are found to negotiate for both their basic salary as well as during appraisal.
Employers are found to often base the initiating offer on the salary history of the candidate,
which further demonstrate that women who had lower salaries in the past, will always be at a
deficit.

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Reference list
Australia, G., 2019. Woolworths: Tackling the Gender Pay Gap | Global Compact Network
Australia. [online] Unglobalcompact.org.au. Available at:
http://www.unglobalcompact.org.au/2017/03/08/woolworths-tackling-the-gender-pay-gap
[Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
Australia, G., 2019. Woolworths: Tackling the Gender Pay Gap | Global Compact Network
Australia. [online] Unglobalcompact.org.au. Available at:
http://www.unglobalcompact.org.au/2017/03/08/woolworths-tackling-the-gender-pay-gap
[Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
Kennedy, T., Rae, M., Sheridan, A. and Valadkhani, A., 2017. Reducing gender wage inequality
increases economic prosperity for all: Insights from Australia. Economic Analysis and
Policy, 55, pp.14-24.
Martin, L., 2019. Gender pay gap: discrimination found to be most significant contributor to
inequality. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/22/gender-pay-gap-discrimination-found-to-be-
most-significant-contributor-to-inequality [Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
Winchester, H.P. and Browning, L., 2015. Gender equality in academia: a critical
reflection. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(3), pp.269-281.
www.abc.net.au,2019. Sexism and harassment persist in defence industry, report finds. [online]
ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-11/sexual-harassment-
discrimination-persist-in-defence-companies/11298910 [Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].

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www.abc.net.au., 2019. Survey finds 'ideal' worker is man without children. [online] ABC News.
Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-21/survey-businesses-prefer-male-workers/
4833586 [Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].
www.bbc.com, 2019. Most firms pay men more than women. [online] BBC News. Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-43129339 [Accessed 7 Sep. 2019].