ADCQ Annual Report 2004–05
Complaint handling
Goal:to provide an accessible, fair, effective
and timely complaint management process.
Overview
It has been two years since major procedural changes were introduced
in the Act. While some changes in our complaint handling processes
were successfully introduced last year, resulting in better timelines,
the successful implementation of a statewide complaint handling
system has further reduced timelines. Other changes including
appropriate use of early intervention assists to ensure complaints
are dealt with in a timely manner.
This year, there has been a further increase in the number of
complaints accepted. This increase in workload cannot be absorbed
by current resourcing. The need for further conciliation staff
will be addressed in future budget submissions.
Early Intervention
The Commission has developed an early intervention model for dealing
with complaints which are relatively straight forward, particularly
where there is a need for urgent action to preserve the relationship
between parties. Early intervention will be voluntary for all
the parties involved.
Early intervention will involve the conciliator conducting shuttle
telephone negotiations between the parties to try to resolve the
complaint at the earliest opportunity. If the complaint cannot
be resolved, the parties may be given an opportunity for a conciliation
conference.
The Commission has begun to trial early intervention and the
early signs are positive. Early intervention will be available
in all suitable complaints from August 2005.
Trends
Following a trend in the last two years, there has been a further
increase in the number of complaints lodged in the 2004-05 year.
As well, the complexity of complaints has significantly increased
as indicated by the rise in the number of accepted grounds of
complaints, up to 1,118 this year from 908 in 2003–04.
The number and rate of acceptance of complaints has increased
compared with previous years, to 66% of complaints lodged.
Main grounds of complaint
The main grounds of accepted complaints included impairment, sex,
sexual harassment, race, age and family responsibilities.
Impairment complaints continued to make up a significant proportion
of the accepted complaints in Queensland, at 27% this year.
This follows an upward trend in impairment complaints from 241
in 2003-04 to 303 in 2004-05.
61.5% of accepted complaints were in the area of work (including
pre-work) which is consistent with past years.
Impairment complaints remained a significant issue in the work
area, representing 24.5% of work related complaints.
Following a decline in the number of sexual harassment complaints
in 2003-04,numbers have increased marginally from 11% last
year to 12% of accepted complaints this year. Of these, a
large proportion still occurred within the workplace, with sexual
harassment complaints making up 14% of work related complaints.
Since April 2003, the Act has covered family responsibilities,
gender identity, relationship status and sexuality. Of these,
family responsibilities is the most common ground of complaint,
making up 5% of all accepted complaints, rising from 3.1%
in 2003-04. We expect this trend to continue in coming years with
more people caring for family members.
Since April 2003 vilification on the grounds of race, religion,
sexuality or gender identity have been covered. Twenty four vilification
complaints were accepted in 2004-05, comprising 2% of accepted
complaints. Racial vilification complaints remained the most common
with 16 accepted complaints this year, a slight rise from last
year.
Of the new grounds of vilification the Commission accepted five
sexuality vilification complaints and two gender identity vilification
complaints. The small number of these complaints does not truly
reflect their significance as vilification complaints may affect
large groups of people identified by a particular attribute.
Discrimination in the work area
Consistent with previous years, the main area of complaint is
work which represented 61.5% of complaints this year, compared
with 61.6% last year. The area of goods and services remained
the second most common, representing 16% of complaints this
year.
Following a trend last year, there has been a further increase
in the number of complaints in the area of state laws and programs
to 7%, up from 4.8%.
Interestingly there has been an increase in the number of complaints
in the pre-work area, with more people complaining about the outcome
of recruitment processes and the questions asked in interviews.
7.6% of accepted complaints arise in the area of pre-work,
which is an increase from 5.8% of accepted complaints in the
2003-04 year.
The number of complaints in the education area has declined from
3.9% to 2%.
South-East Queensland
Reflecting the increase in the overall complexity of complaints
being lodged, there was a 7% increase in the grounds of accepted
complaints in South-East Queensland in 2004-05 to 690, up from
645 in 2003-04.
Compared to the 2003-04 year there were increases in the number
of complaints accepted on the grounds of impairment, sex, sexual
harassment, victimisation and family responsibilities. Of those
the most significant increases were in the number of impairment
complaints which rose from 186 to 211 and victimisation complaints
which rose from 23 to 42 including 31 in the work area.
Conciliation Conferences
During the year, there was a 9.6% increase in the number of
conciliation conference held. Of a total of 565 conferences held
across the state,385 were held in South-East Queensland. 45%
of complaints resolved by conciliation compared to 40% in
2003-04.
Overall 71% of accepted complaints were finalised within
the Commission in 2004-05 with the remaining 29% being referred
to the Tribunal, which is consistent with recent years.
What targets were set
for 2004–05?
– introduction of a statewide complaint handling system
– the complaint handling process to be reviewed to improve
its effectiveness in promoting the objects of the Act
– the standard conciliation agreement to be reviewed to ensure
it is easily understood by all parties and enforceable
– review processes for dealing with complaints lodged outside
the 1 year time limit.
Statewide complaint handling system
Complaints are now distributed on a statewide basis. This ensures
they are dealt with quickly by available staff across all regions.
Although this has resulted in more conciliation conferences being
conducted by telephone particularly through regional offices,
there has still been a 6% increase in the rate of settlement
across the State and fewer complaints have been lapsed or withdrawn.
50% of accepted complaints were finalised within three months
of acceptance and a total of 81% of accepted complaints were
finalised within six months. 87% of clients indicated that
they were satisfied with the complaint handling service of the
Commission, up from 81% last year.
Conciliation Agreement
A new standard conciliation agreement written in plain English
has been developed and implemented to improve the understanding
and enforceability of agreements reached through conciliation.
The standard agreement contains a range of clauses which reflect
the wide variety of outcomes which can be reached, ranging from
apologies to compensation to training programs and policy changes.
While it is still relatively early days, the standard agreement
has received positive feedback.
Out of time complaints
People have one year to lodge a complaint under the Act. This
time limit can be extended where there is a good reason. The process
for deciding whether to accept out of time complaints has been
reviewed and streamlined, however, because of the necessity to
afford all parties natural justice, these decisions still require
considerable time and resources. A review of out of time complaints
indicated that 75% of complaints lodged out of time were lodged
less than two years late. The most common reasons for late lodgment
included a lack of awareness of the right to complain to the Commission,
ill health, concern for employment and attempting to settle the
complaint in other ways. The information gathered in the review
will be valuable in assessing alternative approaches to dealing
with complaints lodged out of time.
For the future: 2005-06
– develop a database of conciliated outcomes and Tribunal
decisions to better inform parties to complaints
– develop and implement a best practice model for conciliation
conferences
– develop and implement early intervention strategies.
Complaint
statistics
Table of
Contents for ADCQ Annual Report 2004–05
