Sexual harassment is rife, complaints are ignored and women fear for their jobs

new survey on workplace sexual harassment has found that almost 75% of Australian women who complained to their employer were not satisfied with the outcome, with more than one in three saying they were ignored and no action was taken.

A ReachTEL poll on behalf of Shine Lawyers surveyed 3677 Australian women over the age of 18 between August 16-17 2018 and found that 19% of women have been sexually harassed at work. Only one in five make a complaint, and of those, 18.2% decided to resign with no job to go to afterwards.

“It is very worrying to see so many women, who have been brave enough to come forward and report harassment to their employer, unhappy with the outcome,” Shine Lawyers Employment Law expert Will Barsby says. “We can’t allow this to continue in Australian workplaces.” The leading reasons women don’t make complaints include because they’re concerned the incident isn’t bad enough to warrant it, they are worried about job security or they’re afraid they won’t be believed.

“Women are being forced to make very difficult decisions about their personal safety versus the need for job security and earning a wage,” Barsby says. “Almost a quarter didn’t make an official complaint because they were worried about losing their job, which puts them in a very vulnerable position.” Read more

Georgina Dent - SmartCompany - 22 August 2018