Discrimination

This data only represents the 87,178 Victorian public sector employees who voluntarily responded to the People matter survey 2022.

For most visuals, we’ve included data from previous years. Some visuals only show data from 2022.

This is because the questions are new or can’t be compared to earlier years.

We don’t show the data from 2020 as some organisations couldn’t take part in the 2020 survey as they were responding to the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Therefore, the 2020 data isn’t a true representation of the public sector.

We’ve broken down the data in 3 ways:

Industry group – Victorian public sector organisations grouped by industry
Whole of Public Sector – the VPS combined with all other public sector bodies outside of the VPS that have a public function
Demographic – Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander identity, disability, gender, cultural identity in 2021 or religion in 2021.

Read more about the response rate to the People matter survey 2022.

Demographic-based questions

The Commission uses strict rules to protect the privacy and anonymity of respondents at every stage of the survey.

We don’t release employee opinion results for demographic groups where industries have less than 30 total responses.

Read our privacy policy.

Read more about the People matter survey 2022.

For data on the whole Victorian public sector workforce go to Workforce data facts and visuals.

Key findings

Reports of discrimination:

fell to 5% of respondents from 9% in 2016

Respondents who experienced discrimination:

53% were discriminated against by a manager or supervisor
said opportunities for promotion was the most common reason.

Defining discrimination

Discrimination is when a person treats, or proposes to treat, a person unfavourably because of a personal characteristic that is protected by law.

Employees expect to have a safe and inclusive working environment free from discrimination.