Harassment, Bullying and Discrimination

This is an easy-to-read version of our Harassment, Bullying and Discrimination Policy.

You can use it as a guide to help you understand our Harassment, Bullying and Discrimination Policy.

Hireup wrote this policy guide. When you see  the words ‘we’ or ‘us’, it means Hireup. 

We have written some words in bold.  

We explain what these words mean on page 30.

You can ask for help to read this policy guide.  

A friend, family member or support person may be able to help you. 

A policy is a plan for how we should do things. Policies are where rules come from.

Our policy explains:

• what harassment is

• what bullying is

• what discrimination is

• what we do to keep our community safe from harassment, bullying and discrimination.

Our policy applies to all Hireup users, including:

• people with disability

• family members

• support workers.

It helps us follow the laws in Australia that protect people from:

• all types of harassment

• bullying

• discrimination.

These laws include the:

• Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth)

• Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth)

• Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth).

Our policy also helps teach Hireup users about  how they: 

• should act

• should not act.

All Hireup users must follow the rules in our policy all the time. 

This includes when they: 

• use Hireup’s services

• work for Hireup

• go to an event for Hireup.

A Code of Conduct is a list of rules about how everyone should behave.

Users should follow the:

• Hireup Code of Conduct for home care and support workers

• Hireup Code of Conduct for people seeking support

• National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Code of Conduct.

The NDIS provides services and support to people with disability.

Harassment is against the law.

Harassment is when someone treats you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable.

It can include:

• sharing mean images

• asking private questions about you and your personal life

making mean jokes about a group of people because of their:

• race
• disability
• gender.

Your gender is what you feel and understand about who you are as a person.

It isn’t about whether your body is male or female.

Sexual harassment is when someone:

• makes sexual comments about you

• acts in a sexual way towards you.

For example:

• making sexual comments about your body

• sending you sexual messages

• asking you personal questions

• touching you when you don’t want them to.

Sexual harassment is against the law.

We take sexual harassment very seriously.

We want our users to feel:

• safe
• respected.

We understand that some people with disability may have sexual behaviours that they:

• can’t control
• don’t understand.

We ask the support workers to understand this too.

We won’t call these behaviours sexual harassment.

There is an important difference between:

• a person with disability who has sexual behaviours

and

• sexual harassment.

For example, a person with disability might make sexual comments to their support worker.

The support worker can tell us about these comments.

We will look into what happened.

But we might find out that the person didn’t understand what their comments meant.

If this happens, we will help the person understand what language they:

• can use
• can’t use.

We will also tell support workers that the person might make sexual comments that they don’t mean to make.

We will help them work out what to do if it happens.

Bullying is when someone says or does something to make you feel bad over and over again.

It usually happens when someone has less power than another person.

Bullying can be:

• calling you names or teasing you

• saying mean things about you that aren’t true

• acting in a way that scares you.

Bullying can happen in different ways, such as:

• in person

• online

• through text messages.

Bullying is not:

• when someone who is bad at their job is told to do better

• when two people don’t agree on something

• when you don’t like someone

• something that happens once.

Discrimination is when someone treats you badly because you are different.

It could be because of:

• your gender

• your disability

• your sexuality – who you are attracted to

your religion, such as:

• Islam
• Judaism
• Christianity
• Hinduism.

Discrimination is against the law.

There are 2 types of discrimination.

Direct discrimination is when someone treats you badly because of something that you can’t change about yourself, like your disability.

Indirect discrimination is when something stops you from taking part in your community.

For example, if you can only enter a public building by using the stairs.

This is not fair to people who use wheelchairs because they can’t get into the building.

Victimisation is when someone is threatened or punished because they:

• made a complaint

• helped someone else make a complaint

• were involved in a complaint.

When you make a complaint, you tell someone that something:

• has gone wrong
• isn’t working well.

We have different ways our users can:

• tell us about their experiences

• make complaints.

Our users can fill out our:

• online incident report form

• Post Booking Feedback Form.

An incident is when:

• something bad happens

• someone gets badly hurt.

We check in with our users about how things are going.

We have an incident response team who deals with reports we get about:

• harassment

• bullying

• discrimination

The team is available:

• 24 hours a day
• 7 days a week.

When this team does their work, they are:

• careful

• quick

• private.

You can read about our incident response team in our statement on incident response.

When you make a complaint, we will:

• take it very seriously

• look into it

• try to fix it quickly

• keep it confidential.

If you keep something confidential, you don’t:

• share the information
• say who gave you the information.

If we find out that someone broke the rules in our policy, we might:

• tell them they can’t work for us anymore

• tell the police.

We will tell you what we did about your complaint.

If you aren’t happy with what we did about your complaint, you can ask for a review.

A review is how we check that we have made the right decision.

We may contact you 12 months after we have finished dealing with your complaint.

We contact you to:

• make sure we have dealt with it in the right way

• find out if there is anything else we can do.

You can read our Statement on Complaints to find out more about how we manage complaints.

This list explains what the bold words in this policy mean.

Bullying

Bullying is when someone says or does something to make you feel bad over and over again.

Code of Conduct

A Code of Conduct is a list of rules about how everyone should behave

Complaint

When you make a complaint, you tell someone that something:

• has gone wrong
• isn’t working well.

Confidential

If you keep something confidential, you don’t:

• share the information
• say who gave you the information.

Discrimination

Discrimination is when someone treats you badly because you are different.

Gender

Your gender is what you feel and understand about who you are as a person.

It isn’t about whether your body is male or female.

Harassment

Harassment is when someone treats you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Incident

An incident is when:

• something bad happens
• someone gets badly hurt.

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

The NDIS provides services and support to people with disability.

Policy

A policy is a plan for how we should do things. Policies are where rules come from.

Review

A review is a way to check that we have made the right decision.

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is when someone:

• makes sexual comments about you
• acts in a sexual way towards you.

Sexuality

Your sexuality is who you are attracted to.

Victimisation

Victimisation is when someone is threatened or punished because they:

• made a complaint
• helped someone else make a complaint
• were involved in a complaint.

(02) 9113 5933

hello@hireup.com.au

Level 5
321 Kent Street
Sydney NSW 2000

https://help.hireup.com.au/hc/en-us

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