TRANSCRIPT
It costs the country $3.5 billion every year in lost productivity, legal claims and internal investigations.
Sexual harassment in the workplace affects 33 per cent of people in Australia.
Now, something is being done about it.
A new project at the University of South Australia will aim to identify how workplace culture contributes to rates of sexual harassment.
Michelle Tuckey is a Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at the University, and is leading the project.
"We're going to start by analysing a range of complaints made by workers who've experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, to see where in the organisational system and how those risks are arising. Are they coming from the social and cultural aspects of the organisation? Are they in the formal organising arrangements like rosters and schedules? Then we're going to take those risk factors and work together with a range of stakeholders, different perspectives on this issue to design an intervention process, and then we're going to trial that intervention in three different high risk industries.”
The national project will be conducted over a period of three years in collaboration with researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland.
Ms Tuckey says a deeper understanding of the risk factors for sexual harassment in day-to-day organisational functioning will help in the development of a model to make workplaces resistant to sexual harassment.
So what exactly is sexual harassment in the workplace, and how do we identify it?
Director of Psychosocial Policy at Safe Work Australia, Katherine Taylor, explains.
"Essentially, sexual harassment is unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature, which makes a person feel offended, humiliated, or intimidated. Sexual harassment can look really different in different workplaces, so it's why it's really important and a legal or requirement under WHS laws that employers consult workers on the risks. Sexual harassment can come from workers, managers, customers, clients, or patients that can be in person or online at the usual workplace, or even attending work-related activities like conferences or Christmas parties."
Ms Taylor says migrant and refugee workers are often more at risk of sexual harassment in the workplace.
"Migrant workers and workers who speak a language other than English might be more at risk than sexual harassment. The risk might be different for them, or they might experience it in a different way. So it's really important that employers are consulting with everyone and ensuring that information on health and safety, including sexual harassment, is available in a language that they can understand and is communicated well."
The latest data from the Australian Human Rights Commission suggests 1 in 3 people had been sexually harassed at work in the previous 5 years to 2022.
41 per cent of those who reported being sexually harassed at work were women and 26 per cent were men.
It found half of the incidents were repeated and of those, half were ongoing for more than one year.
Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody says there are certain sectors which are worse than others.
"There are some industries where it's more prevalent. So information, media and technology there's a higher prevalence. Retail is also higher. Health and social assistance is another industry where there's a high prevalence. There are also some groups of workers or some particular characteristics of workers who are more affected. So those who are LGBTIQ+, those who are young, those who are from culturally, racially marginalised backgrounds all have a higher experience of sexual harassment also."
The Human Rights Commission report found Australian workers don't believe their organisation is doing enough.
Michelle Tuckey agrees, saying it's clear the way most companies are dealing with the issue currently isn't working.
"Organisations typically rely on having a policy implemented through training backed up by reporting system to trigger investigations in action. But there are inherent problems with that common approach. So although policies can set behavioral guidelines and consequences and they may have some kind of deterrent effect, they rely on having a really good and strong training and meaningful action. And the training, although that can raise awareness about what sexual harassment is, there's very little evidence to show that training has any effect on behavior change."
From the 6th of March 2023, workplace sexual harassment became prohibited under the Fair Work Act.
This provision expanded existing protections from sexual harassment to protect workers, future workers and people conducting a business.
Dr Anna Cody says although rates of sexual harassment at work remain concerning, efforts are being made to combat the issue.
"Sadly, it continues to be a very significant issue. It is concerning that that number [[33 per cent]] has not dropped over the last 10 years, so that we're still seeing very high levels of sexual harassment across our workforce, and it occurs across all industries with all people being affected by it, and it's certainly something that we are very concerned about which is why we've had changes to the law to try and address that."
