Your role in maintaining safe, respectful, and inclusive school environments is paramount. With consequences for non-compliance, get across the Respect@Work reforms and their specific implications for school leaders. Understand your obligations towards staff, students and parents and how to navigate the stringent regulatory expectations and governance aspects. Leave with a practical framework for compliance in your school.
Description
Teachers attending earn 1 Professional Development Hour (NSW, VIC) / CPD Point (QLD, WA, SA)
Lawyers attending earn 1 CPD unit in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
1.00pm to 2.00pm Governance Considerations for Maintaining Safe, Respectful and Inclusive Workplaces and Learning Environments
- Overview of the emerging Australian system to prevent sexual harassment and related unlawful behaviours, including understanding the Respect@Work reforms and their application to a school context (including obligations with respect to third parties, such as students and their parents)
- Understanding regulator expectations for complying with legal obligations, with a focus on the leadership, culture and governance aspects of the Respect@Work reforms most relevant to Principals
- A framework for practical compliance, including how to approach the various legal obligations, including sequencing in relation to WHS obligations and the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act
- Insights into the approach of regulators and what other organisations are doing and learning
Presented by Jennifer Bourke, Special Counsel, MinterEllison; Employment Team
Presenters
Jennifer Bourke, Special Counsel, MinterEllison
Jennifer is highly experienced in providing strategic advice to clients on the full spectrum of employment and industrial relations issues, with a particular expertise in the management of reports of sexual harassment and other harmful behaviours in the workplace (including bullying and discrimination). In 2023, Jennifer undertook a secondment to the Australian Human Rights Commission working with then Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, on implementing the Respect@Work reforms. She was a key team member preparing the Commission's guidance for organisations and businesses on how to comply with the new positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible, sexual harassment and related harmful behaviours. Jennifer regularly delivers education to boards, executive leadership teams, and legal and human resources professionals on practical steps to create safer and more respectful and inclusive workplaces, and achieve compliance with the positive duty and other workplace obligations directed at the prevention of harm. Jennifer has particular expertise in the education sector, assisting higher education providers (including universities and TAFEs) and schools (including public, private and religious schools) in the management of their employees, students and other stakeholders (including parents).
This seminar is part of a series
School Law: Drugs, Data Breaches, Medical Conditions, Hazards & Boundaries
Is your school teetering on the brink of legal disaster? Confront the truths of non-compliance of legal requirements in the education environment head on with this 5-part series. From overlooked duty of care obligations to privacy violations to problems with drugs and weapons; ensure you’re across the vulnerabilities and liabilities that risk jeopardising your school. Ensure your school can withstand the next legal horror story to emerge and seize this opportunity for legal resilience.
Description
Teachers attending the entire series earn 5 Professional Development Hours (NSW, VIC) / CPD Points (QLD, WA, SA)
Lawyers attending the entire series earn 5 CPD units in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
If you register for the full series as a live online product after the date of an individual session, you will be sent the recording for the sessions that have passed. Alternatively, you can register for individual sessions by following the links below.
View series listing
