Sexual harassment

Information on ways to prevent, eliminate or minimise the risk of sexual harassment for your workers and in your workplace.

All workers have a right to be physically and psychologically safe at work. Workplace sexual harassment can cause long-term health effects for workers and impact their family and co-workers.

Businesses are required to prevent harm to workers from sexual harassment and this includes making sure that everyone in the workplace understands what they can do to keep workers safe.

Visit Respect at Work on the NSW Government website to learn more about your responsibilities and access resources. Including:

 

Help available now

If you have experienced or witnessed workplace sexual harassment, support is available:

You can report incidents of workplace sexual harassment to the following organisations:

Workers

You have a right to be safe at work and free from harm, including sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment at work is not acceptable and must not be tolerated.

What should I do?

If you have experienced or witnessed sexual harassment in your workplace, and if it is safe to do so, you should:

  • If you can, tell the person harassing you to stop.
  • Tell someone. Your workplace should have processes in place for what to do if you experience or witness sexual harassment at work. This should include a confidential process for reporting it.
  • If you don’t know the process, you can ask your supervisor or manager, your health and safety rep, or someone else at work you trust.
  • If there is no process or you don’t feel comfortable reporting it at work, speak to someone in your personal life you trust, such as a friend or family member, or your GP or a counsellor. If you have reported it to your workplace and are not satifised with the outcome, you can report it to SafeWork.

What is sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is unlawful and is defined under the federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984 as any:

  • unwelcome sexual advance
  • unwelcome request for sexual favours, or
  • other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that would offend, humiliate or intimidate someone.

Sexual harassment can be a single event or repeated and can consist of:

  • unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing
  • inappropriate staring or leering
  • suggestive comments or jokes
  • using suggestive or sexualised nicknames for co-workers (or client’s towards a worker)
  • sexually explicit pictures, posters or gifts
  • circulating sexually explicit material
  • persistent unwanted invitations to go out on dates
  • requests or pressure for sex
  • intrusive questions or comments about a person's private life or body
  • insults or taunts based on sex
  • sexual gestures or indecent exposure
  • sexually explicit or indecent physical contact
  • sexually explicit or indecent emails, phone calls, text messages or online interactions
  • repeated or inappropriate advances online
  • threatening to share intimate images or film without consent
  • actual or attempted rape or sexual assault.

Who’s at risk of workplace sexual harassment?

Anyone can experience workplace sexual harassment.  Some workers are at a higher risk of or are disproportionately affected by workplace sexual harassment.

These include:

  • women
  • younger workers (under 29)
  • workers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer or asexual (LGBTQIA+)
  • First Nations and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
  • workers living with a disability.

The risk and impact of workplace sexual harassment can increase for people who experience multiple, intersecting forms of discrimination and disadvantage.

This may include workers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) or culturally and racially marginalised (CARM) backgrounds, and people who are insecurely employed such as casual, migrant and gig economy workers.

Who is a worker?

‘Workers’ are people who carry out work in any capacity for a business, as defined under NSW’s work health and safety (WHS) laws. This may include:

  • employees
  • contractors or sub contractors
  • apprentices or trainees
  • work experience students
  • volunteers or interns.

Impact of sexual harassment

In addition to physical injuries from assault, the stress response can cause other physical injuries such as cardiovascular disease and gastrointestinal disorders.

Workers may also experience psychological injury such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Feelings of isolation and becoming withdrawn may also be experienced as is having suicidal thoughts.

Businesses can be impacted with decreased performance from staff, time lost with management, staff turnover and a poor work culture.

Who are the perpetrators?

The perpetrators of sexual harassment can be anyone, including: people in positions of authority, co-workers as well as customers, clients, patients, or members of the public.

Remember that a workplace includes wherever your workers carry out work for the business.

Business

Sexual harassment is a work health and safety hazard firstly, and can be categorised as a psychosocial hazard.

Businesses have a responsibility to provide a safe workplace without risks to health and safety which means eliminating or minimising the risk of workplace sexual harassment.

Start by creating a workplace culture that does not tolerate workplace sexual harassment. Leaders should model respectful workplace behaviours and intervene early to address poor workplace behaviours.

The Code of Practice for Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work includes guidance for identifying and assessing risks to workers which may contribute to workplace sexual harassment.

Identify hazards and assess risks in the physical and online work environment through consultation with your workers. Note that the workplace is where work is undertaken including, for example, at another location such as at a client’s home and work-related functions.

Once you have assessed the risks you must determine suitable ways in consultation with your workers to manage the risk of workplace sexual harassment. This could include the following:

Create systems of work

  • Establish workplace policies which clearly explain what harmful workplace behaviour is, including sexual harassment.
  • Have clear policies on workplace communications including email, telephone, social media and acceptable behaviours for these.
  • Have clear policies and procedures for work-related events such as work travel and conferences.

Inform, train, instruct or supervise

  • Communicate the effects of harmful workplace behaviour on worker health and safety and what your workplace policies include on sexual harassment.
  • Provide workers at all levels with clear information on reporting incidents of sexual harassment and the investigation processes available at the workplace and potential outcomes of the investigation
  • Train people leaders in receiving sensitive disclosures of sexual harassment, including sexual assault
  • Train appropriate personnel to investigate sexual harassment incidents or source a competent person outside of the workplace.
  • Ensure workers have the necessary supervision when implementing policies and training.

Step in early to stop harmful behaviour

  • Ensure people leaders call out harmful behaviour immediately to improve workplace culture.
  • In consultation with workers develop processes which encourage early reporting and support seeking.
  • Have accessible information on support services for workers who have experienced sexual harassment at work.

Implement reporting and response processes

  • Implement accessible and confidential reporting processes.
  • Have clear guidelines for those responsible for responding to or investigating reports of sexual harassment.
  • Consider personal duress alarms to be used in the event of emergency.
  • Ensure the information of all parties involved is kept confidential
  • Ensure responses are given in a timely manner to all parties involved.

Review regularly

Workplace procedures to prevent workplace sexual harassment should be reviewed on a regular basis in consultation with workers to determine if they are still adequate or need to be changed.

Codes, guides and resources

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