Legal Update: Harassment in the Workplace

Every Australian employee has the right to work in an environment free from harassment. While some times it is difficult to readily identify instances of workplace harassment, employers must remain vigilant.

What is Workplace Harassment?

Workplace harassment is behaviour which is:

unwelcome and unsolicited;
considered offensive, intimidating, humiliating or threatening; or
that a reasonable person would consider offensive, humiliating, intimidating or threatening.

How to identify Harassment in your workplace?

Harassment can be committed by anyone in the workplace including:

the boss;
a colleague;
a group of co-workers;
a client or customer, or
a member of the public.

Accordingly, as an employer it is important to watch for any signs of harassment in your business. Key signs that an employee may be a victim of workplace harassment include, the employee:

taking an increasing number of days off work;
increasing their use of the staff counselling services;
exhibiting signs of poor moral and loyalty to their job; and/or
becoming withdrawn and isolated from other staff members.

Key signs that a business is suffering from workplace harassment include:

an increase in staff turn over;
low moral among staff;
an increase in used of staff counselling services; and
an reluctance among staff to include particular individuals in staff activities.

What Employers can do to minimise the risk: Preventative Measures

If you know of or suspect harassment in your workplace as an employer you should immediately:

hold discussions with employees, Managers, Workplace Health and Safety Officers and counselling services on a regular basis about workplace harassment;
continue to watch for signs of harassment in you workplace; and
provide staff training about what is and is not acceptable behaviour in the workplace.

Hemming+Hart Lawyers can assist with Workplace Health and Safety, Harassment and Discrimination staff training in addition to reviewing all staff policies.