Equal opportunity policy template
Hiring, rostering, training and dismissal all touch this. The Fair Work Act lists the attributes an employer cannot act on, and most small business trouble comes from a roster decision made casually rather than a hiring decision made badly.
This example wording was checked against the official sources on 22 September 2026. It is a starting point, not legal advice, and it has not been through a workplace relations professional.
| Section | What the policy says |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To set out that decisions here are made on the job, not on who somebody is, and what to do when they are not. |
| Who it applies to | Everybody who works here, everybody who applies for work here, and everybody who makes a decision about either. |
| What is protected | Race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, family or carer’s responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction, social origin, breastfeeding, gender identity, intersex status, and experiencing family and domestic violence. |
| What adverse action is | Firing somebody, injuring them in their employment such as by withholding pay or leave, changing their job to their disadvantage, treating them differently from others, not hiring somebody, or offering worse terms than others get. Threatening or organising any of those counts too. |
| Where it applies | Every decision about work: who is hired, who gets which shifts and how many, who is trained, who is promoted, who is disciplined and who is let go. |
| What is not discrimination | Action taken for a reason that has nothing to do with a protected attribute, such as poor performance, and action that relates to the necessary requirements of the job. A licence the law requires for the work is a necessary requirement. A preference for a particular look is not. |
| Rostering and hours | Shifts are offered on availability, skills and the needs of the business. Somebody is not given fewer hours because of their age, their caring responsibilities, a pregnancy, a disability or a religious observance they have told us about. |
| Recruitment | Vacancies are described by what the job needs. Interviews ask about the work. Age, marital status, pregnancy plans and family responsibilities are not asked about and are not written down. |
| Reasonable adjustments | Where somebody needs an adjustment to do the job, such as a change to a task, a piece of equipment or a start time, we will discuss it and make it where it is reasonable to do so. |
| If it happens to you | Tell the owner, in person or in writing. If the owner is the problem, the contacts in the last section take reports directly. |
| What the business will do | Look into it, explain the reason a decision was made, change it where it was wrong, and keep a record. Where somebody has discriminated against another person, that may result in disciplinary action up to dismissal. |
| No victimisation | Nobody will be treated badly for raising this, for supporting somebody who did, or for being a witness. |
| Where else you can go | The Australian Human Rights Commission, your state or territory anti-discrimination body, the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman. |
| Review date | Reviewed each year in March. |
What is in the file
- Template, blank, with each section down the side and room for the answer.
- Example, the same sheet filled in for Harbourside Coffee.
- How to use, with the steps and the mistakes below.
How to fill it in
- Keep the list of attributes complete. Dropping the ones that feel unlikely in your trade is how a policy stops being useful.
- Read it beside your own roster from last month and ask why each person got the hours they got.
- Say who makes hiring decisions and what they are allowed to ask, because that is where most of the risk sits.
- Check your state or territory anti-discrimination law as well, since it may cover attributes the Fair Work Act does not.
Common mistakes
- Cutting a pregnant employee’s shifts to be helpful, without asking her what she wants
- Treating "we need somebody with more energy" or "a fresher look" as a description of a job
- A policy about hiring only, in a business where the decisions that matter are about who gets Saturday
What changes by trade
The law behind this document is the same wherever you trade, so the wording above is written once. What changes is what the trade puts in front of it.
| Cafes and restaurants | Front of house hiring is where "the right look" gets said out loud. Write down what the job needs, and keep the interview to it. rostering a cafe |
| Retail | A seasonal intake and a roster that shrinks in February make it easy to cut the wrong person for the wrong reason. Record why each person’s hours changed. rostering a retail roster |
| Fast food and takeaway | Most of the roster is under 21 and paid by age. Junior rates set by the award are lawful. Giving somebody fewer shifts as they get older and dearer is not. rostering a takeaway |
| Pubs and clubs | Some duties genuinely require a licence or a minimum age, and those are necessary requirements of the job. Say which duties, so the exception is not stretched to cover the whole roster. rostering a pub or club |
| Disability and home care | A participant may ask for a worker of a particular sex, and sometimes that request is lawful and sometimes it is not. Decide who makes that call and write down the reason each time. rostering disability support |
| Childcare | Carer’s responsibilities are a protected attribute and are common across this workforce. Say how a request to change a start time for school drop off is considered rather than refused by habit. rostering an early learning service |
This is example wording for a small business to adapt, not legal advice. The protected attributes and adverse action come from the Fair Work Act 2009. Federal anti-discrimination law and the anti-discrimination law of your state or territory apply as well, and may cover more than this list.
Sources
The official pages this wording was read against, on 22 September 2026.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Protection from discrimination at work
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Rules about workplace sexual harassment
When a spreadsheet stops being enough
Roster Flow records the availability each person gave and the hours each person was offered, so the question of why somebody got fewer shifts has an answer you can look at rather than reconstruct.
Questions
What is on the equal opportunity policy template?
14 sections down the side, running from purpose to review date. The example beside them is filled in for Harbourside Coffee: the seventeen protected attributes, what adverse action is, and what is not discrimination.
Does the equal opportunity policy template work anything out for you?
No. It is a document with 14 sections to answer in your own words, not a calculator. Nothing on it is a formula.
Can I use the equal opportunity policy template in Google Sheets?
Yes. Open equal-opportunity-policy.xlsx from Google Drive, or use File, then Import, then Upload with equal-opportunity-policy.csv. The document and its example come across either way.
Is the wording in the equal opportunity policy template ready to use as it is?
The equal opportunity policy template is a starting point for Harbourside Coffee or any business like it, to adapt rather than sign. The wording was checked against the official sources on 22 September 2026, it is not legal advice, and it has not been through a workplace relations professional.