Businesses legally obliged to prevent sexual harassment

New laws come into effect today, cracking down on sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.

Transcript

00:00 Now from today the Australian Human Rights Commission will have new powers to enforce

00:06 and investigate compliance within businesses on their responsibility and proactive duties

00:12 to tackle sex discrimination and these legal obligations have existed for the past 12 months

00:18 but the enforcement powers for the commission come into effect today and this means that

00:23 there is what's called a positive duty for businesses and workplaces to make sure that

00:29 they are taking responsibility to eliminate certain behaviours including sex based discrimination

00:35 at work, sexual harassment at work and also creating a hostile workplace environment on

00:40 the grounds of sex and the Australian Human Rights Commission has created some guidelines

00:45 for businesses and organisations to help them understand what reasonable and proportionate

00:50 measures would need to be taken to make sure that they satisfy the requirements under the

00:56 law and earlier we heard from a human rights and discrimination lawyer Prabha Nanda Gopal

01:01 who spoke to ABC News Breakfast and she says that she hopes the changes will help shift

01:06 the way that companies think about this issue.

01:09 Take a listen.

01:10 The first step is for businesses to ensure that their leaders understand that they are

01:16 ultimately responsible and accountable for eliminating sexual harassment in the workplace.

01:21 It can no longer be delegated to human resources or people and culture.

01:26 It has to be treated like any other business imperative and backed by meaningful action.

01:32 And experts like Prabha Nanda Gopal say that these changes aren't just focused on big business

01:37 but also other sectors like retail and construction where sexual harassment is rampant and Prabha

01:44 Nanda Gopal also warned about the rise in sexual harassment that's happening outside

01:50 of workplaces on social media, on platforms like WhatsApp and LinkedIn as well and we

01:56 also know that this is a growing problem in the Australian community with the latest data

02:00 from the commission showing that one in three Australians have experienced sexual harassment

02:06 at work but fewer than 18% have made formal complaints so it is hoped that these legal

02:12 changes will mean that businesses will be able to better tackle this issue in workplaces.

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