The WorkSafe Victoria Business Leaders Breakfast earlier this week offered a chance for interested parties to hear from WorkSafe and its guest Rod Maule, the General Manager of Safety and Wellbeing at Australia Post. WorkSafe’s Colin Radford offered a “stump speech” that, although familiar, was important. Maule was a colourful speaker who, on reflection, wasn’t …
Lisa Annese‘s article is interesting but, as with many articles on sexual harassment at work, only goes so far. It is discussive rather than practical, even though it seems to promote action. Sometimes the actions are not clear enough to inspire change. Below are my thoughts on the six steps to complement Lisa’s recommendations.
The Australian Government is set to introduce new workplace sexual harassment laws and obligations through Parliament. In The Saturday Paper on November 5 2022 (paywalled), businesswoman Lucy Hughes Turnbull wrote a short article that reminds us of the purpose of the new laws. “The whole idea of the Me Too movement and the Respect@Work report …
Last week two young women, Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, made speeches at the National Press Club about the sexual abuse of minors and an alleged sexual assault in Parl ment House, respectively, and the social changes required to prevent both risks. Both spoke about the need to prevent these abuses and assaults. OHS needs …
There continues to be a competitive tension in Australia between the professions (if they are professions) of Human Resources (HR) and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). This has been most obviously on display in relation to sexual harassment and the psychological harm that results. Recently Marie Boland, about to be the 2021 Residential Thinker at …
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has released a guide for employers on managing sexual harassment in workplaces. It contains a lot of helpful information, but it also illustrates the self-imposed limits that business has on preventing workplace psychological hazards. To a lesser extent, it is downplaying the preventative role of occupational health …
The Australian government has failed to follow through on its early promises to provide a framework for employers to prevent and reduce sexual harassment in their workplaces. This failure is being interpreted as revealing something about employers’ attitudes to occupational health and safety (OHS) and their own legislative duties. Employers (and other groups on non-OHS …
