Offenders are distributed across all sections of our society. The range of convictions is enormous, from extremely serious to very minor. However, the prejudice which many exoffenders face when applying for employment encourages them to not disclose their record to employers. Most employers will have recruited exoffenders without knowing. In the vast majority of cases, this will not be a problem.
For some employers, and for whole occupational sectors, a person's criminal convictions may be of little importance in assessing suitability for vacancies. For other employers, and for certain jobs, it may be important that applicants disclose any criminal conviction, so that judgement can be made on its relevance to the job applied for.
Employers want to employ the best possible person for each job in their Company. This guide is aimed at assisting employers to do just that.
The term, exoffender, is used in this guide to refer to people who have been convicted of a criminal offence, and who have fulfilled their sentence, or paid their fine, or completed whatever punishment had been ordered by the Courts.
THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION ACT 1986
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's jurisdiction covers Commonwealth Government authorities, State Government authorities, and the private sector.
This legislation specifies that discrimination on any of the following grounds is unlawful and complaints can be received.
- Sex
- Marital status
- Pregnancy
- Race
- Religious and political conviction
- Impairment
- Sexual harrassment
Since the January 1, 1991 amendments, the Act also covers:
- Age
- Medical record
- Criminal record
- Sexual preference
- Trade union activity
Discrimination in the following areas of public life is unlawful:
Applicants and employees · Professional or trade organisation
Contract workers
Qualifying bodies
- Sex
- Marital status
- Pregnancy
- Race
- Religious and political conviction
- Impairment
- Sexual harrassment
What is direct discrimination?
This occurs when one person is treated less favourably than another in the same circumstances, or when one person is treated less favourably because of a characteristic which applies, or is assumed to apply, to persons of the class to which that person belongs.
CASE EXAMPLE
A 36 year old man with twenty years' experience in the mining and civil engineering industry recently confessed to a robbery that he had committed seven years ago. He had never been caught, but because of his new religious beliefs he had felt compelled to confess his offence. Because of this "new" conviction, he lost his job and has been unable to find any other work in his field.
What is indirect discrimination?
This occurs when an unreasonable rule or practice exists which, on the face of it appears neutral, but in fact has a detrimental effect on persons of a particular group covered by the Act, because they cannot comply.
CASE EXAMPLE
Employers who state in their advertisements that security checks will be required, without giving any further explanation, discourage many suitable applicants with minor or unrelated convictions from applying.
EXCEPTIONS
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Act contains a number of commonsense exceptions where discrimination is lawful.
CASE EXAMPLE
This applies in any situation where the nature of the conviction makes it clearly inappropriate for the applicant to hold that position. For example - a conviction within the last year for armed robbery and a job requiring the handling of large amounts of cash.
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