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The government is hoping the newly passed legislation will ensure “women are able to earn a living in safe, sexual harassment-free workplaces”.
Across the last five years, one in three employees experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. The Albanese government’s Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation (Respect@Work) Bill, passed through Parliament earlier this week and produced by closely following recommendations dished out by sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins, looks to reduce the prevalence of workplace harassment.
A government statement detailed the new laws will:
- Place a positive duty on employers to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and victimisation, as far as possible.
- Strengthen the Australian Human Rights Commission with new functions to assess and enforce compliance with this new requirement, including the capacity to give compliance notices to employers who are not meeting their obligations.
- Expressly prohibit conduct that results in a hostile workplace environment on the basis of sex.
- Ensure Commonwealth protection public sector organisations are also required to report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency on its gender equality indicators.
A statement from the Australian Human Rights Commission explained the bill creates “a positive duty requiring employers to implement measures to prevent sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and victimisation, and confers new regulatory powers on the next commission”.
The commission welcomed the “milestone” bill, with Ms Jenkins believing the legislation is “a major achievement that fundamentally changes how Australia protects people from workplace sexual harassment”.
She explained that the bill “changes our settings from being reactive to also being proactive so that employers are required to take meaningful action to prevent harassment from occurring”.
“It shifts the emphasis from a complaints-based model to one where employers must take action and continuously assess and evaluate whether they are meeting the requirements of the duty.
“Although there will be a 12-month transition period before the duty becomes enforceable, I urge all workplaces to implement change now so that people may enjoy safer workplaces, free from sexual harassment, sooner,” she added.
“These important reforms are timely and should be considered by state and territory governments to achieve greater harmonisation of sexual harassment legislation as part of any upcoming legislative reviews.”
The commission, in unison with the Respect@Work council, also launched a new website earlier in November, which offers comprehensive information and resources to assist businesses fulfil their obligations and create respectful, harassment-free workplaces.
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