WARNING: THIS WEBSITE MENTIONS SEXUAL HARASSMENT. IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY ANY OF THIS CONTENT AND ARE LOOKING FOR SUPPORT, CLICK HERE

WARNING: THIS WEBSITE MENTIONS SEXUAL HARASSMENT. IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY ANY OF THIS CONTENT AND ARE LOOKING FOR SUPPORT, CLICK HERE

It’s time to mobilise to end sexual harassment in the workplace.

As CEW members and CEW Connect community members, we have incredible influence and reach. Let’s combine our collective power to eradicate sexual harassment.

We need to ensure the elimination of sexual harassment is firmly planted on the board’s and executive’s agenda and that it remains in sharp focus.

We are in a powerful position to ensure our boards and executive teams understand a new Australian positive duty for organisations to eliminate sexual harassment in their workplaces. This duty came into effect on 13 December 2022. Since 12 December 2023, the Australian Human Rights Commission has had increased powers to enforce compliance with positive duty.

In our work, we call on organisations to demonstrate their leadership and commitment to undertaking their positive duty to systematically prevent sexual harassment and related inappropriate conduct in their workplaces. Essential within this duty is creating and maintaining a respectful and safe culture and building psychological safety and trust. Through building this culture, organisations demonstrate their commitment to preventing these behaviours in the first place.

To help, CEW has created resources to initiate critical conversations at work. These tools are designed to navigate potential resistance, model suggested phrasing, and offer examples of reporting frameworks. This is not a turnkey solution but a start for you to build on.

We’ve offered a range of resources for various stages of the journey – so you can access what you need when it’s most relevant to you.

Impactful change requires a collection of voices.

Download the Resource Pack

Together, we can end sexual harassment and build equality across our workforces.

The time for patience is over.

The external climate has made boards realise that even if you don’t want to focus on sexual harassment as a board issue, the community, the workforce and investors now expect more of leaders, and our new laws demand it. With the help of these practical materials from CEW, every board and leadership group can now have effective conversations about preventing and better responding to sexual harassment.

Now leaders just need the courage to have these urgent and difficult conversations, to match the courage shown by so many survivors of sexual harassment who deserve change.

Kate Jenkins, Former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission, CEW Member

Levels of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces are shocking and pervasive.

In the past five years, one in three people has been sexually harassed at work. This must end.

The introduction of positive duty will be a game changer. It dramatically moves the focus from zero tolerance to zero harm, demanding organisations be proactive not merely reactive.

As CEW members we have incredible influence and reach.

We need to put this to good use and urge our organisations and boards, not just to comply with the new regulations but to step up as leaders in creating safe workplaces where everyone can thrive.

Together, we can end sexual harassment and build equality across our entire workforce.

Respect is everyone's business.

Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, President, CEW

Use your influence

read our media release

Download our resource pack

Respect is Everyone’s Business is about equipping everyone, especially leaders with influence, with the tools to create safe and respectful workplaces.

We encourage all leaders to use and share these resources in their spheres of influence and help eliminate and prevent sexual harassment in their workplace even before it happens.

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    We need to set the tone and lead from the top. With this in mind, here are examples of some things we should never say or accept from others:

    • A bullying and harassment policy should be enough to deal with sexual harassment and related inappropriate conduct.
    • We have low report rates of sexual harassment and related inappropriate conduct, so it’s not a problem at this organisation.
    • We have a reporting hotline which is well publicised, but we don’t get many calls about sexual harassment or related inappropriate conduct, so it’s not an issue here.
    • I have been in this industry for decades and I have never seen it, so it mustn’t be happening.
    • That’s the remit of our HR team. If there were ever a big issue, they would escalate it to us.
    • Our staff engagement scores are terrific and there is no indication of there being a sexual harassment problem here. That means we’re doing enough.
     
    Most cultural issues aren’t hiding in plain sight. Often, it’s the things that aren’t being talked about that we need to be concerned about. Research tells us that sexual harassment is common and that it’s significantly under reported. In fact, increased reporting can indicate greater psychological safety and a culture of trust that the organisation takes sexual harassment seriously. We have a positive duty to prevent sexual harassment and related inappropriate conduct, and to continuously assess and evaluate whether we are meeting the requirements of the duty. 
     

    We need to ensure our people feel safe to come forward and report instances of sexual harassment or related inappropriate conduct in the workplace. The only way they’ll do this is if they can see that leadership takes this issue seriously.

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    We take the health and wellbeing of our people very seriously. We work hard to improve our safety outcomes and reduce injuries, and overall we do a good job of preventing physical harm to our people.

    As we have seen in many other organisations, sexual harassment is more prevalent than a lot of people think. This represents a real risk to keeping people safe in the workplace, and to our people’s wellbeing and productivity.

    It can also cause significant damage to our reputation, our brand as an employer of choice, lost business, and to our corporate standing. If we fail to take steps to address this conduct, we may be subject to enforcement action and/or civil penalties. Our organisation may also be held liable for inappropriate conduct committed by our employees unless we took all reasonable steps to prevent the conduct occurring. 

    We need to make it crystal clear to everyone in the organisation that we have zero tolerance for any form of sexual harassment. We will always take appropriate action when sexual harassment or related inappropriate conduct occurs. We seek to prevent these unlawful behaviours and to have a zero-harm workplace. We welcome the new Australian positive duty placed on organisations by the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act 2022 and commit to implementing its provisions in a timely fashion and demonstrating our leadership. 

    We need to treat sexual harassment and related inappropriate conduct risks as we would any other physical or psychological risk in the workplace. We already have existing systems and processes in place for identifying and mitigating workplace health and safety risks and hazards, and for defining our desired safe and respectful culture. 

    We need to embed these sexual harassment response frameworks into our existing risk reporting practices and organisational culture, so all forms of sexual harassment and related misconduct are eradicated.

    We can’t afford to wait on this; we need to act urgently. 

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    Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or other conduct of a sexual nature. It’s not only a human rights issue, which is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act, but also a workplace health and safety (WHS) risk which can cause significant psychological, physical, reputational and financial harm.

    Existing systems and processes for managing WHS risks and hazards should be used to eliminate the risks and control the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring in the workplace.

    Board members and senior executives have a duty to address this. Everyone deserves to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive environment. Respect is everyone’s business.

    Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or other conduct of a sexual nature. It’s not only a human rights issue, which is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act, but also a workplace health and safety (WHS) risk which can cause significant psychological, physical, reputational and financial harm.

    Existing systems and processes for managing WHS risks and hazards should be used to eliminate the risks and control the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring in the workplace.

    Board members and senior executives have a duty to address this. Everyone deserves to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive environment. Respect is everyone’s business.