Eligibility & compliance

The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 (Cth) (the Act) requires non-public sector employers that employ 100 or more employees in total to register for the Gender Equality Reporting program and submit data to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA, The Agency) annually.

The annual submission consists of:

• an online questionnaire related to your organisation’s policies, strategies, and actions on gender equality
• two excel worksheets designed to collect information about workforce composition; salaries and remuneration; and employee appointments, promotions, resignations, and parental leave.

Submissions are made in the WGEA Portal during the two-month submission period: 1 April to 31 May. 

An employer will comply with the Workplace Gender Equality Act if they:

• Submit an annual report with all mandatory data before the submission deadline
• Have your CEO or Agency/Department head (or equivalent) review and approve the submission
• Provide information to review an employer compliance if we ask
• Do not include anything false or misleading in the report or in the extra compliance information we request.
• Comply with notification and access requirements
• If your organisation or corporate group employs 500 or more employees, your organisation’s compliance is also subject to the Minimum Standards.

We can review your organisation’s compliance with the Act:

• By asking for more information
• Reviewing randomly selected reports
• After assessing comments their organisation’s employees or employee organisations have made.

The Agency issues compliance certificates to those who submit their report on time.

• On time means submitting a fully compliant report in the period 1 April to 31 May or have received an extension of time and submit within the extension period

Compliance certificates are issued once an employer has been assessed as compliant, 28 days after the organisation has submitted a report with no outstanding or unaddressed data quality issues.

• Employers will receive an email informing them when their compliance certificate is available to download from the online WGEA Portal.

The Act outlines an employer’s obligations as well as consequences for non-compliance. If an employer does not demonstrate compliance:

• We can name an employer in a report to the Minister that is tabled in both Houses of Parliament.
• We can name an employer publicly by electronic or other means.
• An employer may not be eligible to tender for contracts under Commonwealth and some state procurement frameworks and may not be eligible for some Commonwealth grants or other financial help.

Organisations tendering for government contracts may need to satisfy a requirement to be compliant with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.

For organisations that have reported on time

• Your compliance letter fulfils this requirement, a copy of your most recent letter can be downloaded from the 'Data and Insights' tab within the Portal.

For non-public sector organisations with 100 or more employees who are not registered with the Agency

• You will need to register to be issued with a letter stating that you are compliant. Complete a registration form on the login page of the WGEA Portal to be issued with a letter that can be used for tender requests, this may take 1-2 business days to process.

For organisations that are not required to report as they have less than 100 employees across their entire structure

• Please complete the registration form on the login page of the WGEA Portal. The Agency will use the details provided in the registration form to issue your organisation with a tender letter, this may take 1-2 business days to process.