Overview
The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 aims to:

• Promote merit in employment;
• Promote equal employment opportunity and eliminate discrimination; and
• Encourage consultation between employers and employees on these issues.

The Legislation
The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act 1999 (Cth) came into effect on 1 January 2000, renaming and updating the Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986.

The Act requires:

• Private sector companies
• Community organisations
• Non-government schools
• Unions
• Group training companies, and
• Higher education institutions

with 100 or more people to establish a workplace program to remove the barriers to women entering and advancing in their organisation.

To view the legislation in full, see The Act.
For information on how the Act was reviewed, see Review of the Act and the 1998 Submission to the Review of the Affirmative Action Act.