With Christmas and the end of the year fast approaching, it’s an excellent time to remind ourselves about sexual harassment policies, which apply to work-related social functions and activities such as Kris Kringle.
The Australian Human Rights Commission recently released findings of its 2022 national survey on sexual harassment in the workplace.
Key survey findings:
Sexual harassment continues to be an unacceptably common feature of Australian workplaces, with one in 3 workers experiencing workplace sexual harassment in the last 5 years
Most sexual harassment in Australian workplaces is carried out by men
Half of incidents are repeated and of those, half are ongoing for more than one year
Only a third of Australian workers think their organisation is doing enough
The Australian Parliament recently passed a new Respect@Work Bill which ‘places a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation’.
Useful resources
This website provides a comprehensive set of resources for employers and workers. It includes best-practice guides, training programs, workplace-assessment tools, information, videos and advice.
This guide provides information for employers on preventing and responding to sexual harassment in the workplace.
