Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, this week released the fifth annual Australian Human Rights Commission national survey that investigates the prevalence, nature and reporting of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces.
For the first time, the survey also asked about workers’ views on the actions taken by their employers to address workplace sexual harassment.
The survey provides information about the scale of workplace sexual harassment and the need for prevention and response initiatives:
The survey release coincided with the passage through Federal Parliament this week of the Respect at Work Bill, which is designed to address sexual harassment in Australian workplaces.
Information is available for employers at the Respect@Work website on how to put in place measures to prevent and appropriately respond to sexual harassment in the workplace.
The Survey was launched by Kate Jenkins at the National Press Club in Canberra on 30 November.
Ai Group asked the Commissioner about a cornerstone of the new legislation, the positive duty of care obligation for employers.
QUESTION:
Tony Melville, Director of the National Press Club, also of the Australian Industry Group which was represented on the Respect@Work Council by Innes Willox who is here today. My question is, actually, I think you have made an impact on Parliament. I was up there the other day and there are cards in all the bathrooms and attached to new passes that basically say, “if you’re in trouble, here’s a number to call”. So I’m just wondering, that seems like a good example of a positive duty (under the new Respect@Work Act). From a practical sense, what would you say to business in terms of the sorts of things they can do to meet that positive duty?
KATE JENKINS:
So that’s a fantastic question, and I know the head of the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service, Meg Brighton, is here today, and I agree there’s lots of little things that you can do that are very clever. So I point you to the respect@work.gov.au website, but also, just encourage you, going back to first principles.
The Respect@Work report talked about moving towards prevention and thinking about what data you’re gathering, what risk factors are using more of a health and safety approach, how is your governance involved.
So we did a piece of work with the ACSI, the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, to look at what reporting goes up to boards and how few boards were asking questions. You’ve got your education, your policies, and those sorts of things. And then our other recommendations in response were to create more reporting options and provide supports that aren’t contingent on reporting. So there is plenty of stuff out there that is going to be available for big and small businesses to understand what that is.
If I had to just start at the very start, I would say the top leaders being engaged asking questions. Our finding in the national inquiry was often the top people didn’t think it was even their job, and it was viewed as HR at best, and in small business, it was viewed as 'deal with it yourself'. And then, because I'm launching the survey today, I’ll encourage everyone to look at the survey data, the prevalence data, which has industry information, and that really means even if you don’t have statistics, you can look and say: I’m in media, I should be worried, or I know the mining sector has been really active on that. We don't have to have people tell us. We know that this risk is high, particularly for women. So, leadership and I’ll say data because I’m launching the survey.
Tony Melville is Head of Corporate Affairs at Ai Group and a Director of the National Press Club. He introduced the Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the survey launch in Canberra on 30 November.
