The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator the Hon Murray Watt, has approved the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety (Sexual and Gender-based Harassment) Code of Practice 2025, under section 274(1) of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.  

The Code provides practical guidance to anyone who has a duty of care in the Commonwealth jurisdiction on meeting their obligations under WHS laws in relation to sexual and gender-based harassment. A copy of the Code of Practice can be found at www.legislation.gov.au/F2025L00326/asmade/text 

The Code of Practice supports implementation of recommendation 35 of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report, which recommended that work health and safety (WHS) ministers develop a code of practice on sexual harassment. 

The Code of Practice adopts the model Code of Practice on Sexual and Gender-based Harassment, published by Safe Work Australia, with minor modifications for the Commonwealth jurisdiction to: 

• include recent research on workplace technology-facilitated sexual harassment 

• ensure consistency with the approach in the Commonwealth Work Health and Safety (Managing Psychosocial Hazards in the Workplace) Code of Practice 2024, and 

• incorporate minor or technical feedback from stakeholder consultation. 

No one should feel excluded working on the railway.

The Railway Workers’ Section of the International Transport Worker’s Federation (ITF) has launched a crucial Survey of Railway Workers with Health Conditions and/or Disabilities, aimed at gathering insights to enhance union support and workplace inclusivity.

RTBU members are encouraged to participate in the survey, which can be completed here:

Take the survey

Purpose of the Survey 

The survey aims to: 

• Highlight the difficulties experienced by rail workers with visible or invisible health conditions and/or disabilities, including mental, cognitive, and physical challenges. 

• Collect insights on the safety and inclusivity of workplaces within the rail industry. 

• Identify potential changes or improvements that employers could implement to better support workers. 

This initiative builds on the commitments made during the ITF Railway Section Conferences in Johannesburg and Marrakech, which focused on promoting disability equality in railway workplaces worldwide. Specifically, these resolutions called for: 

• Improving workplace disability equality by removing barriers to the recruitment, retention, and promotion of disabled workers. 

• Supporting self-determination and leadership of disabled workers through union democratic structures. 

• Conducting research into the experiences of workers with visible and hidden disabilities, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of workplace issues. 

• Promoting the social model of disability, which focusses on overcoming the societal barriers that it recognises as the cause of disability rather than individual impairments, and encouraging its adoption by employers

Working in hot conditions is dangerous, and potentially fatal.

Tasmanians will go to the polls on Saturday 23 March to vote for a new parliament and a new State Government.

This is your chance to make a difference, and to elect politicians who take public transport seriously.

Australian transport networks are slow, congested, expensive to use and falling apart.

That’s having an impact of productivity, jobs and the amount of time we can all spend with family and friends.

We need comprehensive plan to deliver faster, safer, better transport – for both people and freight.

At this Federal election, Vote 1 for candidates who will put transport into the fast lane.

The Federal Government has been caught out trying to deregulate coastal shipping, which could have catastrophic consequences for Australia's intermodal rail freight sector.

The RTBU will always put the interests of our members FIRST when it comes to responding to attempts by management to introduce invasive electronic surveillance technologies such as in-cab cameras. Have your say by completing by confidential online survey here.

Your safety at work is non-negotiable – but right now, politicians and bosses are trying to weaken rail safety laws.