She who shares her story of…
It was ME they walked!
The Story
I worked for a major mining house in a role where I saw things sensitive to the culture of the business. And have I seen some things in that business.
I have seen a complaint come through and it had details of sexual harassment. It had disgusting details of shocking events that I cannot remove from my mind.
However, that’s not the worst part of this story.
I pushed for action. I pushed for the right response. I pushed for our people to be protected and for our leadership to take a visible stand against this sort of behaviour being in our business.
My call to action has fallen on deaf ears. In fact… …it was ME they walked from the business!
The Message
Positive duties under work health and safety laws require persons conducting a business or undertaking to do all they reasonably can to prevent sexual harassment. You cannot ignore events that occur in your business.
Sexual harassment is a known cause of physical and psychological harm. Penalties for failing to meet WHS duties include fines and jail terms for the most serious breaches.
The Call to Action
You have a duty to manage the risk of sexual harassment just as you do for any other WHS risk. This means:
- identifying how, where and when sexual harassment might happen
- assessing the likelihood that a worker may experience sexual harassment and how it may affect them
- implementing the most effective control measures to prevent sexual harassment from happening
- working out how you will address sexual harassment if it does happen
checking that your control measures are working and whether there is anything more you can do.