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‘Clarion call’ should seek stronger sexual harassment laws
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights commissioner is calling for a stronger legal framework to deal with sexual harassment complaints, after the commission received a 20 per cent increase in sexual harassment complaints over 2017–18.
Grace Ormsby
The renewed call comes after last week’s closing of submissions to the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces, and echoes its own submission on the matter.
For the organisation’s commissioner Kristen Hilton, the key to tackling sexual harassment is shifting the burden of sexual harassment claims from victims.
Commissioner Hilton said that “acknowledging sexual harassment as a symptom of gender inequality is a critical first step”.
Data from the state-based group highlighted sexual harassment as a heavily gendered issue, with women making up more than four in five complainants, with over 96 per cent of harassers identified as men.
“We know that all sorts of people experience sexual harassment, and that there isn’t a single type of sexual harasser; but we also know that it affects a huge proportion of women at work, and that it has serious and lasting impacts,” she explained.
“Real change will come from shifting our focus from individual cases to the underlying systems, structures and power imbalances that have allowed sexual harassment to become normalised in Australian workplaces.”
The commission said that independent, anti-discrimination bodies like itself “play a crucial role in developing effective responses to sexual harassment at the system level”.
“Employers’ internal complaints processes are often constrained by workplace politics and this can lead to low levels of trust in their impartiality and effectiveness,” its statement said.
For commissioner Hilton, the “distrust of workplace complaints processes and the increase in complaints to the commission highlight the inadequacy of our entire system for dealing with and responding to matters of sexual harassment”.
“It really is a clarion call for us to take stock of what prevention and complaints systems we have in place and what needs to change, both at an individual workplace level and at a regulator level,” she considered.
The commission said making the positive duty to proactively prevent sexual harassment enforceable, and not just react to complaints, “would expose the underlying causes of sexual harassment and ensure consequences for employers and others who don’t fulfil their obligations”.
In its own submission to the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces, the commission has sought power to investigate possible contraventions of the Equal Opportunity Act and to undertake own-motion public inquiries into sexual harassment “to drive systemic change”.
Commissioner Hilton said “combining the positive duty to eliminate sexual harassment, discrimination and victimisation with an own-motion public inquiry and a broadened investigation function would give us more effective tools to assess whether employers and others are complying with the positive duty, even when there is no complaint.”
The commission also considered that a more effective legal framework would recognise complementary responsibilities of a range of regulators, including WorkSafe Victoria, the Fair Work Commission, ombudsmen, and other anti-discrimination commissions.
“There are real opportunities for the Commission and WorkSafe Victoria to work together to understand, identify and respond to sexual harassment in Victorian workplaces,” Commissioner Hayne noted.
“We need a better system for prevention but also for accountability, one that affords natural justice, that is swift and effective, that gives regulators that have expertise and a role in sexual harassment more power and resources to do their job well.”
