Almost two in five women have experienced sexual harassment in the past five years, “causing devastating impacts on individuals and significant costs to Australian society”.

Kingsford Legal Centre, Redfern Legal Centre, the Women’s Legal Service NSW and Community Legal Centres Australia have all called for comprehensive reform to protect workers from sexual harassment, supporting the views of sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins who argued that the law is simply no longer fit for purpose.

In a joint statement, the legal advocacy groups said: “We call on the Australian government to take immediate steps to implement the 55 recommendations contained in the Respect@Work report. The report highlights the problems with the current laws and provides sound solutions that will mean workplaces will be the safe places they ought to be.”

Kingsford Legal Centre director Emma Golledge welcomed the report’s recommendation that the Australian government prioritise initiatives that aim to stop sexual harassment from happening in the first place.

“The Respect@Work report recognises Kingsford Legal Centre’s innovative #MeToo, It’s About You initiative, which brings conversations about sexual harassment to Year 9 and 10 students, many of whom are about to get their first jobs,” she said.

“We know from the #MeToo, It’s About You initiative that community legal education is a powerful tool in raising awareness about sexual harassment and changing community attitudes.”

Redfern Legal Centre employment lawyer Sharmilla Bargon added that the law should be changed to require employers to take steps to stop sexual harassment.

VIEW ALL

“We regularly advise people who have been sexually harassed, who are then fired or bullied when they report it,” she said.

“Due to gaps in the law, we have to use ‘workarounds’ to protect people from sexual harassment and to hold perpetrators to account. We need to change workplace culture. The law needs to make clear that it’s the employer’s role to provide a safe workplace, free of harassment.”

Elsewhere, Women’s Legal Service NSW principal solicitor Pip Davis said that she was pleased that the Respect@Work report identified non-disclosure agreements as an important issue, but noted that she was disappointed that the report did not make a specific recommendation for the law to be changed.

“The #MeToo movement has drawn attention to the many ways that perpetrators and employers silence women,” she said.

“Non-disclosure clauses should be prohibited unless a victim of sexual harassment requests confidentiality, and such clauses should never stop women from speaking about their own experiences of sexual harassment.”