Firms aren’t ready for a wave of new sexual harassment rules
Fewer than half of directors are confident their companies will be able to adhere to new workplace sexual harassment standards when they come into force next week, with just one in five female directors saying their boards understand the requirements of the new regime.
ACSI chief executive Louise Davidson says it is important that eliminating sexual harassment is dealt with as a whole-of-board issue. Louise Kennerley
From Tuesday, organisations will be required to actively eliminate sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, sex discrimination, and victimisation in the workplace.
The standards, the outcome of a 2020 landmark report undertaken in the midst of mass public protest over high rates of harassment and violence towards women at work, were introduced a year ago. But the Australian Human Rights Commission will only have the power to enforce compliance with the standards from December 12.
Research by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) found male and female directors differed significantly on the preparedness of their organisations to meet the new standards.
Just 20 per cent of women directors said their boards had a “very adequate understanding” of the nature of “positive duty conduct” such as sex
discrimination, sex-based harassment, hostile workplace environments on the basis of sex, and victimisation. Almost double the number of male directors felt the same.
AICD chief Mark Rigotti attributed the difference to lived experience, although he said there was no data to explain the gap in attitudes.
“As a general rule, women more keenly feel the problem. They feel more of an urgency to fix it and say the rate of change is not fast enough. That is my hypothesis, but I am probably stereotyping there,” Mr Rigotti said.
AICD chief Mark Rigotti says boards are much more aware of sexual harassment issues than they were five years ago. Dominic Lorrimer
ACSI chief executive Louise Davidson has a similar view.
“Perhaps it is a lived experience issue. It reinforces how important it is for this to be dealt with as a whole-of-board issue and not just leave it to female directors,” Ms Davidson said.
Just 41 per cent of directors said their board was receiving training on workplace sexual harassment and other misconduct that fell within the new regime, while 78 per cent said employees were receiving training.
Mr Rigotti said that despite the fact that more than half of directors believed their organisations were ill-prepared to meet the new standards, the research showed more boards were taking the issue seriously than five years ago.
“There has definitely been an uptick in focus,” he said.
But Mr Rigotti said boards needed to build a culture where staff were prepared to speak up about harassment and discrimination to prevent it from happening, rather than reacting after the event.
He said that to satisfy the standards boards needed to: ensure greater awareness of harassment and discrimination, so the issue was front-of-mind for all staff; demand regular rather than annual reporting of key metrics such as staff engagement surveys, complaints surveys, exit interviews and whistleblower reports; and gain an understanding of where there might be pockets in an organisation that enabled poor behaviour.
If an organisation fails to comply, the commission will be able to issue a compliance notice, apply to the federal courts for an order to direct compliance, or enter into an enforceable undertaking.
The commission is expected to take a proportionate approach when deciding if employers have met the positive duty, with the standards imposed on big business higher than smaller ones.
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