Workplace Gender Equality Agency reveals ‘positive progress’ in workplaces

Australia’s workplace gender equality watchdog has reported “positive progress” in how bosses approach and deal with sexual harassment, even as the vexed problem continues to rock some of the country’s largest employers.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency shows 99 per cent of medium and large employers covering five million employees have formal policies on work-related sexual harassment and discrimination and some 85 per cent of CEOs are now “highly engaged in reviewing, signing off on and then communicating these policies”.

But while CEOs are increasingly focused on the issue, just over 55 per cent of company Boards are similarly involved, WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said.

“Our results indicate CEOs and Boards can play more of a role in proactively enabling a safe and respectful culture by communicating the employer’s expectations more regularly to all employees,” she said on Monday.

“Overall, we are seeing positive progress in relation to the prevention and responses to sexual harassment but there’s more to be done.

“Future WGEA reporting will be able to monitor progress on this.”

Employers are shifting to a new “positive duty” model to prevent sexual harassment, the agency said, which means they are proactively working to prevent it from occurring in the first place.

Some 91 per cent of employers now prioritise prevention measures like having a statement on their positive duty to provide a safe workplace for all employees, the WGEA said.

Nearly half of employers, or 49 per cent, have articulated processes relating to the use of nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements.

Some 88 per cent of employers provide training on the prevention of sexual harassment and discrimination, but 28 per cent of employers are not monitoring how prevalent sexual harassment might be in their workplaces and 68 per cent fail to provide comprehensive anonymous disclosure processes.

“While there are comprehensive processes to disclose sexual harassment to HR or designated staff, anonymous disclosure processes are less available,” the agency said.

“The ability to protect a reporter’s identity with anonymous disclosure is important, given widespread underreporting of these serious issues.”

The data snapshot comes before the release of the agency’s comprehensive analysis of the private sector’s performance on workplace gender equality, expected at the end of November.

The agency’s results, while indicating some progress, follow a set of stark scandals involving alleged sexual harassment of staffers at some of Australia’s most respected employers, including media giant Nine Entertainment.

In a public report released from October, Nine acknowledged widespread workplace harassment.

Some 24 per cent of employees experienced sexual harassment in the past five years, the company said, and 49 per cent had experienced bullying, discrimination or harassment.

One staffer told investigators women were “constantly bullied into submission and to a point where we have no confidence or self-worth left”.

“If you challenge your male superior, they more often than not respond aggressively and it costs you professionally and financially,” the staffer said.

Meanwhile in May, fashion retailer Country Road was hit with sexual harassment allegations, with the company launching an external investigation into its complaints processes.