Prevent and manage sexual harassment
How to prevent and manage risks from sexual harassment.
Practical step by step ideas, tips and suggestions to help employers of different sizes prevent mental injury and create a safe and mentally healthy workplace. Use tools, templates and resources to focus on work-related factors that impact mental health and learn good practice. Check out the full range of topics on the Toolkit.
Learn about sexual harassment
What is sexual harassment?
In Victoria, the legal definition of sexual harassment comes from the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (EO Act). The EO Act makes sexual harassment against the law in certain areas of public life, including at work.
Section 92(1) of the EO Act says
...a person sexually harasses another person if he or she:
- makes an unwelcome sexual advance, or an unwelcome request for sexual favours, to the other person; or
- engages in any other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the other person—
in circumstances in which a reasonable person, having regard to all the circumstances, would have anticipated that the other person would be offended, humiliated or intimidated.
In simple terms, this means that sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual behaviour or actions that may create a risk to someone’s health and safety.
Sexual harassment can be:
- physical, including gestures
- verbal, including through online spaces
- written (text or images), including through online spaces and messaging or social media platforms. These don’t have to be connected to work.
It can be a single incident or happen more than once. The behaviour does not need to be repeated to be sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is a serious occupational health and safety issue. It can cause both psychological and physical harm.
Sexual harassment in the working environment is when these behaviours happen:
- in the workplace, which is wherever an employee works for their employer
- where an employee is working remotely, including if the person’s workplace is:
- the employee’s home
- another person’s home, such as home visits or outreach work
- online
- at work-related meetings, activities or events, such as a work Christmas party
- between people who work together or share the same workplace
- by phone, email, social media or online through a work connection
- at employer-provided accommodation, such as fly-in fly-out sites or at work conferences.
Sexual harassment in the working environment isn’t always obvious, repeated or continuous.
How is gendered violence different to gender equality, gender equity, domestic violence and sexual harassment?
These terms are often misunderstood or used interchangeably, leading to confusion.
Definitions
- Gendered violence in the workplace
Gendered violence in the workplace refers to harmful acts directed at individuals based on their gender or gender expression, often involving harassment, bullying, or physical violence. This can include sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination, and intimidation, creating a hostile or unsafe work environment.
- Domestic violence
Domestic violence is abuse or coercive behaviour used by one partner against another in an intimate or familial relationship. It can involve physical violence, emotional abuse, financial control, or other forms of manipulation, often occurring in private spaces but with profound public and workplace implications.
- Gender equity
Gender equity refers to the process of being fair to all genders by addressing specific disadvantages that certain groups face due to systemic inequalities. It emphasizes the provision of resources, opportunities, and treatment based on individuals’ needs to achieve fairness and equality of outcomes.
- Gender equality
Gender equality means ensuring all individuals, regardless of gender, have equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities in all areas of life, such as education, employment, and decision-making, without discrimination or bias.
- Sexual harrassment
Sexual harrassment is unwelcome sexual behaviour or actions that may create a risk to someone’s health and safety. Sexual harassment can be physical verbal or written. These don’t have to be connected to work and can be a single incident or happen more than once. The behaviour does not need to be repeated to be sexual harassment.
The risk management process
To provide a safe and healthy working environment for employees and other persons, employers must eliminate or reduce hazards and risks. They must do this so far as is reasonably practicable. This includes for psychosocial hazards like sexual harassment.
A safe and healthy working environment requires an organised approach to finding and fixing hazards and risks. This is known as the risk management process, and it applies to both physical and psychosocial hazards.
The whole risk management process involves consultation at each step.
Consult your employees
Consultation can be done in a number of ways. Depending on your workplace, it can be as simple as casually walking around your workplace having a conversation, or as formal as setting up a health and safety committee.
Good consultation has lots of benefits – it leads to better decision making and greater cooperation and trust between employers and employees, who get a better understanding of each other's views.
Consultation isn't just good practice though, it's actually a legal requirement for employers. Employers must consult with employees, including health and safety representatives (if any), when identifying or assessing hazards that do, or are likely to directly affect their health and safety. This includes identifying whether sexual harassment may be a hazard at the workplace, and working out how to eliminate or reduce the risk of it occurring. At a minimum, it must involve sharing information about the issue, giving reasonable opportunity to employees to share their views on that issue, and taking those views into consideration.
Step 1: Identify hazards and risks
A hazard is a term that means anything that has the potential to cause harm to a person. Think of hazards like 'situations' or 'things' in the workplace that can hurt someone, either physically or mentally. The risk is the potential of it actually happening.
Sexual harassment is an example of a psychosocial hazard. The risk is that someone will develop either a physical or psychological injury as a result of being exposed to sexual harassment in the workplace.
Identifying sexual harassment
Identifying psychosocial hazards involves finding all the hazards in the working environment. This includes both reported and non-reported hazards. It also involves understanding the possible harm the hazards may cause.
- Employers must consult with employees and any health and safety representatives (HSR) when identifying hazards
Depending on the size and type of workplace, employers can do this in different ways. This includes by:
- seeking employee reports about health and safety concerns, including psychosocial hazards
- providing multiple ways to report, including anonymously, verbally or in writing
- talking to employees and observing how work is being done
- organising external reviews of the workplace by an independent person or organisation
- seeking feedback on psychosocial hazards
- for example, doing employee surveys with questions about psychosocial hazards.
- Ways to identify if sexual harassment is an active hazard in your workplace
- Review workplace data
- Review workplace structure
- Review the working culture
- Revew work systems, practices and policies
- Review the working environment - both physical and online
- Review patterns of absenteeism and leave
- Talk to your staff
For more information on this step please see the links below for the WorkSafe Guidance.
Step 2: Assess risks
Assess the risk of Sexual Harassment occurring
A risk assessment will help you understand the risks to your employees' health, and how to prioritise your efforts to manage them.
It is good practice to identify hazards, either individually or in groups, which are creating risks to health and safety.
How to conduct a risk assessment
How a risk assessment is done may depend on the:
- nature of the psychosocial hazard
- working environment.
In a small workplace, a risk assessment may be as simple as regularly talking to affected employees and any HSRs. A more comprehensive process may be needed:
- for larger workplaces
- workplaces in high-risk industries
- where risks associated with sexual harassment or other psychosocial hazards are higher.
To prevent harm, employers should:
- assess these risks
- proactively use effective risk controls.
Assessing risks is not a one-off action. It should be part of a continuous improvement process.
When assessing risks associated with sexual harassment, consider the following questions
- What is the likelihood of exposure to sexual harassment?
- What is the source of the likely risk/s? For example, colleague, manager or customer?
- When are employees exposed to the hazard? For example, daily, at peak times, when a certain task is done?
- How long are employees exposed for at any one time? For example, two weeks at the annual peak demand or an hour during each shift? Exposure for a short duration may still be harmful, such as seeing someone perform a sexual act.
- How severe are the consequences if employees are exposed?
For example:
- Could the exposure happen as a single episode? For example, a customer deliberately touching an employee’s backside.
- Is exposure likely to be repeated and the harm accumulate over time? For example, repeated questions from a colleague about an employee’s relationship status, either in person or via a chat function.
- What risk controls are currently in place to reduce the risks and how effective are they?
- Are there other psychosocial hazards active in the workplace that may increase the risks?
- Could an employee be permanently physically or psychologically injured and unable to work?
- Are some employees more likely to be exposed?
For example:
- people who identify as women or non-binary
- employees who work at night.
- Are some employees more likely to experience more severe consequences?
For example:
- employees who face overlapping forms of discrimination
- employees caring for patients displaying inappropriate sexual behaviours.
For more information on this step please see the links below for the WorkSafe Guidance.
Step 3: Control the risks of sexual harassment
A control is a way to eliminate or reduce the risk of harm happening – think of this as ‘managing the issue’. The list could be endless, but it's really about taking action, so far as reasonably practicable, to manage the risk of sexual harassment happening in your workplace.
Here are some ways that employers can take action (or 'implement a control') to create a safe workplace.
- Encourage and support reporting
Sexual harassment is under-reported. The 2022 Australian Human Rights Commission Survey found that in the past five years only 18% of people who had been sexually harassed at work made a formal complaint.
Employees may not report incidents because:
- It’s seen as ‘part of the job’ or work culture and they think nothing can be done about it.
- They think reports will be ignored, not taken seriously or not handled respectfully and confidentially.
- They fear they will be blamed, or that reporting may lead to more harm, discrimination or disadvantage. This may include losing their job or shifts.
- A perpetrator may have organisational power over them. For example, a manager or supervisor.
- They may have reported it in the past, and nothing happened to stop the behaviour or they felt victimised, so they don’t want to report again.
Reports of unwanted behaviour or areas of risk will help employers to prevent and respond to sexual harassment. Employees should be able to report sexual harassment in a way that is:
- respectful and does not cause further harm
- straightforward
- confidential
- supported, including by their supervisor/management, an HSR, a union delegate or other support person.
Employers should regularly promote ways to report, including during induction. Employees should be able to report anonymously if they wish. This may particularly help vulnerable employees.
Employers can encourage reporting by:
- Showing commitment to, and modelling of, appropriate behaviours.
- Acting on reports as soon as possible, in line with the organisation’s policies and procedures. Consider how the employee may be affected and what they would like to achieve.
- Training supervisors how to respond to a report. This includes protecting the affected employee from blame, penalty or further harm. For example, not simply moving them into another role.
- Providing consistent, effective and confidential responses. These should include ways to eliminate the harmful behaviour. If this is not possible, minimise the risk as far as is reasonably practicable.
- Encouraging all employees to do regular refresher training on preventing and responding to sexual harassment. This includes supervisors, management and HSRs.
Employers should not wait for a report or complaint to:
- put risk controls in place to prevent sexual harassment
- investigate a known incident of sexual harassment.
Encourage employees to ‘call it out’
A bystander is someone who either:
- sees something concerning but isn’t directly involved
- is told about an incident.
An active bystander is someone who takes action after witnessing or hearing about an incident of harmful behaviour. It can involve acting in the moment through words or body language. It can also include making a report afterwards or challenging the culture that allowed the behaviour to occur.
- Lead by example and demonstrate commitment
Employers and managers set the workplace culture. They should model desired workplace behaviours of equality and respect by championing a culture that is free from sexist and discriminatory attitudes and behaviours. They should be supportive of employees who experience violence and integrate gender equality into core business.
Workplaces can achieve this by:
- Develop a workplace action plan, strategy or policy.
- Consider how work is designed.
- Develop work systems and procedures that help prevent sexual harassment.
- Consider the physical working environment.
- Provide training and inductions
Employers must provide necessary information, instruction, training or supervision. This should be provided alongside other risk control measures to effectively control the risk of sexual harassment.
Information, instruction, training and supervision help to educate employees about preventing the risk of gendered violence. Training on gendered violence can form part of wider training about:
- gender equality
- codes of conduct
- violence prevention.
Employers should deliver targeted training to employees at all levels. This includes during induction and at regular intervals. Where possible, tailor training to employee needs and roles. It should cover:
- Sexual harassment prevention measures and how the organisation is putting these in place.
- Workplace policies and procedures, including:
- standards of behaviour
- how to respond to and report sexual harassment
- what to do if someone discloses an instance of sexual harassment.
- Being an active bystander.
- Situational risk assessment. For example, when visiting homes or working alone.
- How to model and encourage appropriate behaviours or manage harmful behaviours.
- Dealing with customers or clients who are unsafe, aggressive or violent. This may include actions like refusal of service.
- Communication skills.
- How compounding risk factors increase the risk of sexual harassment.
For more information on this step please see the links below for the WorkSafe Guidance.
Step 4: Share, review and revise
A safe and mentally healthy workplace needs ongoing commitment, review and revision.
Reviewing and revising risk control measures helps employers to check whether:
- risk controls are working effectively
- there are additional or modified controls needed to control the risks.
This process also enables employers to check if there are any new or unintended risks that may be present.
It may also identify necessary improvements or changes to, for example:
- the physical environment
- work systems and procedures
- training.
Employers should review sexual harassment risk control measures:
- At a regular time based on the current risk – for example:
- monthly after a reported incident
- less often if there have been no reported incidents or significant changes in the working environment.
By sharing the outcomes of these reviews, as well as suggestions and recommendations for improvements, you can keep the conversation going. This will continue to build trust and cooperation between you and your employees. Consultation must be undertaken before making any changes and these changes must be communicated to your employees.
For more information on this step please see the links below for the WorkSafe Guidance.
More information
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