Have you been discriminated against in Victoria?
What the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 means for sex workers
About the Equal Opportunity Act 2010
Decriminalisation was designed to alleviate sex workers from systemic and systematic harms. In Victoria, decriminalisation will have many arms to achieve this, one of which is the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Act).
The new attribute added into the Act is ‘profession, trade or occupation’. This is designed to ensure sex workers cannot be discriminated against because of their work.
This will also protect others who face discrimination and stigma because of their job.
The Equal Opportunity Act was also amended to ensure sex workers can’t be refused accommodation.
Decriminalising sex work recognises that consensual sex work is legitimate work and regulated like all other industries in the state.
This discrimination occurs when someone treats you unfairly because of your profession, trade, or occupation. This includes sex work.
The Equal Opportunity Act now protects sex workers from discrimination in certain areas of public life, including, work, education, goods and services, sporting clubs, and accommodation services.
Examples of profession, trade or occupation discrimination
Refusing to provide a bank loan to someone because they are a sex worker.
Refusing to provide an employment opportunity to someone because they previously worked as a sex worker.
Discrimination is against the law if it happens in an area of public life such as:
Under the Equal Opportunity Act, duty holders (such as employers, schools, and goods and service providers) have a positive duty to eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation in these areas, as far as possible.
It is also against the law to victimise a person, which means treat them badly, because they have made complaint about discrimination or helped someone else make a complaint.
Have you been discriminated before as a sex worker?
If you have, there is an opportunity to share your story as a case study. The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission is looking for real sex workers experiences to inform their written materials and paying well for them!
The Commission is keen to include stories from a broad range of sex workers in resources, regarding their experiences of discrimination. This includes from cohorts such as:
street-based sex workers;
sex workers who are First Nations Australian;
culturally and linguistically diverse workers;
sex workers that have a disability;
or workers who are transgender or non-binary.
They really want to understand particular experiences of discrimination, as well as the particular supports and information that would assist in lodging complaints of unlawful conduct.
If you’re interested in putting forward a story or stories to potentially select, you just need some basic information, such as where the discrimination occurred, in which area of public life and broadly by whom (e.g. was it a financial institution, accommodation provider, etc) and what the discriminatory treatment was (including whether the subject was also First Nations Australian, transgender, gender diverse, culturally and linguistically diverse, had disability or was street-based, etc).
They can provide payment for the authors/subjects of these case studies, for purchasing their story to use in their materials. The story will be on their website with the option of video content. You can remain anonymous and de-identified.
They’re keen to make a selection in the next few weeks, so if anyone’s interested, please send through a few dot points with an outline of the story (no personal information required) by Thursday (15 September) to Jill.Beale@veohrc.vic.gov.au
Are you currently experiencing discrimination because you’re a sex worker?
Are you a sex worker in Victoria and wondering how to interact with the Equal Opportunity Act? I’ll go through step by step the information as it was told to me by the Victorian Equal Opportunity & Human Rights Commission.
Follow their account on Instagram and Twitter where they post information about discrimination.
If you think you’ve experienced discrimination in any form, including from Victoria Police, you can contact the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.
You do this first by contacting the Commission’s free Enquiry Line on 1300 292 153 for more information, to better understand if you’ve been discriminated against.
Or you can lodge a complaint online using this form, if you’ve experienced discrimination, victimisation or sexual harassment.
These complaints can be brought forward by representatives (like a friend), but the complainant’s identity cannot remain anonymous to the respondent.
In terms of complaints regarding the Police, you can also lodge a complaint with the Police Conduct Unit at Victoria Police on 1300 363 101 or the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) on 1300 735 135 or by lodging a complaint here.
Remember, sexual harassment is a form of discrimination and if you’re working in an establishment where a manager is behaving inappropriately, this may be a route worth considering.
If anyone has any questions about sex work and discrimination in Victoria, please feel free to ask here or contact me at 0421 462 912. I will investigate and ask the Commission for clarification. I’m pretty sure they’re going to have material available that explains these processes better than me.
But for now, I hope this information is helpful!
Wow, this is great.