How to prevent work-related sexual harassment

Duty holders who have a role in preventing and managing sexual harassment under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the WHS Act) include:

Persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs)
Officers
Workers, and
Other people at the workplace.

A person can have more than one duty and more than one person can have the same duty at the same time.

Duty Holder	Definition
PCBU	A PCBU is the person conducting the business or undertaking. A PCBU has the primary duty to make sure workers and other people are not exposed to psychosocial hazards arising from the business or undertaking. This duty requires PCBU’s to ‘manage’ risks by eliminating or minimising exposure to psychosocial hazards so far as is reasonably practicable.
Officer of a PCBU	An officer is a person involved in making decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the organisation. Officers have a duty to make sure the PCBU complies with their duties under the WHS laws. This includes taking reasonable steps to gain an understanding of the psychosocial hazards and risks associated with the operations of the business or undertaking, and to make sure the business or undertaking has and uses appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risks of harm.
Worker	Workers undertake work for the PCBU – this could be paid or unpaid work, such as volunteers. Workers have a duty to take reasonable care for their own health and safety and to not negatively affect the health and safety of other persons. Workers must comply with reasonable instructions, as far as they are reasonably able, and co-operate with reasonable health and safety policies or procedures that have been notified to them.
Other persons	Other persons at the workplace, like visitors, must take reasonable care for their own health and safety and must take reasonable care not to negatively affect other people’s health and safety. Other persons must comply with reasonable instructions given by the PCBU to allow them to comply with WHS laws.

More information about WHS duties and how to manage WHS risks can be found in the Code of Practice: How to manage work health and safety risks.

Sexual harassment is also unlawful under other laws such as:

Sex Discrimination Act
Anti-Discrimination laws, and
for some sexual harassment acts, Criminal law.

Managing the risks

As the PCBU, you can identify work-related sexual harassment hazards and manage their risks in the same way you manage physical hazards. This process is known as risk management and involves:

Identifying the hazards
Assessing the risks
Using control measures, and
Monitoring and reviewing the control measures.

Consultation is a key element of providing a healthy and safe work environment. You have a duty to consult with affected workers about WHS. If they have a health and safety representative (HSR), the HSR must be included in the consultation. This duty is described in more detail in the Code of Practice: Work health and safety consultation, cooperation and co-ordination.

For more information about managing the risks of work-related sexual harassment, see Safe Work Australia’s Guide for preventing workplace sexual harassment.

PCBUs must also train their workers about the work-related sexual harassment hazards and risks and how the control measures that are used to eliminate or minimise them.

Identifying sexual harassment hazards:
The first step in the risk management process is to identify all work-related sexual harassment hazards. This involves finding things and situations that could harm workers and others at the workplace.
As the PCBU, there are several ways that you can identify work-related sexual harassment hazards. For example:
- Talk with your workers about what work-related sexual harassment hazards are and whether they think they are or have experienced them. Be mindful that workers may want to only talk about behaviours privately and may use different terms to describe exposure to these hazards. They might say they feel:
  - the workplace culture supports or tolerates crude, or suggestive jokes towards a particular group, to the point where lower level (but still harmful) behaviours and comments are accepted
  - they have been or are humiliated, degraded or undermined by the behaviour of others
  - they are isolated in remote locations with limited supervision, or have restricted access to help and support when they feel uncomfortable
  - that there are certain aspects of the work that increase their exposure to hazards and feelings of offence or intimidation.
- Use anonymous employee surveys like the People at Work Survey, and other hazard identification tools. These can help with:
  - poor understanding among workers and employers of the nature, drivers and impacts of sexual harassment
  - unreported occurrences of work-related sexual harassment.
- Observe your workplace and review your workforce. You can look at your diversity, where the workforce is dominated by one gender, age group, race or culture.
  There may also be:
  - power imbalances or a hierarchical structure that may lead to power imbalances, including young people and junior positions
  - interactions with clients, customers or members of the public that could be harmful.
- Review any information you might have, such as:
  - records of injuries and illnesses
  - workers’ compensation claims
  - sick leave patterns
  - safety inspections
  - WHS complaints
  - internal investigations and processes
  - exit interviews
- Research what types of hazards might be at your workplace based on what work you do and who your workers may interact with, including working alone, working at night-time, or the service of alcohol.
Assessing work-related sexual harassment risks:
Assessing risks involves considering what could happen if someone is exposed to a work-related sexual harassment hazard, the degree of harm that may result, and the likelihood of that outcome.
When assessing risks, you should consider:
- Duration: how long are workers exposed?
- Frequency: how often are they exposed?
- Severity: how severe are the psychosocial risks and their outcomes?
Risks of work-related sexual harassment are also likely to be greater based on workers sex, gender, sexuality, age, migration status, disability and literacy, including:
- workers under 30 years of age
- workers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer or asexual (LGBTIQA+)
- Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander workers
- workers with a disability
- workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
- migrant workers or workers holding temporary visas, and
- people in insecure working arrangements e.g., casual, labour hire or part-time work.
As the PCBU, you can use a risk assessment template to assess work-related sexual harassment risks.
To identify hazards, it may be useful to:
- walk-through your workplace and assess the physical work environment and if it is designed in a way that protects workers from sexual harassment
- assess any online working environments
- think about your work systems and practices
- observe the culture of the workplace to see whether sexual harassment is present
- observe how leaders, managers, supervisors, workers and others interact
- carry out surveys about the workplace culture
- identify trends that may highlight areas of concern or affected workers
- consult with HSRs and worker representatives, if you have them, about whether concerns have been raised by workers
- review grievance data such as formal and informal complaints and workers’ compensation claims
- review industry data on sexual harassment
- look at the worker demographics of your workplace to identify power imbalances in working relationships
Sexual harassment may also be committed by a third-party, such as customers, clients, patients or members of the public. It may also be useful to:
- talk to your workers about when and where they feel at risk of experiencing sexual harassment when they perform their work
- review policies and processes to see if there are any situations where sexual harassment may be encountered, such as a uniform policy.
Eliminating and controlling work-related sexual harassment risks:
Under the WHS laws, risks to health and safety must be managed following the hierarchy of controls:
- Eliminate the hazard
- Minimise the risk using substitution, isolation and engineering controls
- Use administrative controls, and
- Use personal protective equipment (PPE).
The hierarchy of controls assists to find the best combination of measures for your work and your workplace.
As the PCBU, you must always aim to eliminate work-related sexual harassment hazards first. For example, you could remove the risk of sexual harassment through safe design of the workplace, ensuring there are no opportunities for it to occur.
Where the hazard cannot be eliminated, you must then minimise the risks so far as is reasonably practicable using control measures. For example, you could:
- ensure there are secure facilities at the workplace
- provide internal and external lighting that is motion activated out of hours or at night
- install communication, security or duress systems
- prevent public access to certain areas of the workplace
- avoid situations where workers are working alone
- implement clear workplace policies and procedures
- provide adequate supervision.
Reviewing risk control measures

The control measures you have in place should be reviewed regularly and in some circumstances a review is required by the WHS Regulations. Examples of when a review of controls should be undertaken include:

after receiving a report of sexual harassment
when workers or their representatives indicate that risk control measures are ineffective or not as effective as they should be
when an HSR or health and safety committee request a review
when a significant change at the workplace has or may have introduced new or different hazards and risks, including the work environment, work tasks, systems, processes or procedures, and
at regular intervals e.g., annually.

Psychosocial risk management scenario | Sexual Harassment

WorkSafe ACT have developed a sexual harassment scenario to illustrate how a PCBU might effectively respond to a sexual harassment complaint in their workplace. View the scenario here.

More information

Resources

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Psychosocial risk management scenario | Sexual Harassment