Workplace sexual harassment

Across 2024, we obtained $675,500 for 14 clients in sexual harassment cases. That’s an average of over $48,000 in each case, which is around double the value of the outcomes which we were obtaining for clients just 5 years ago. Three of our settlements were for six-figure sums.  A further 18 sexual harassment complaints are active as we reach the end of the year.

All of our resolutions were achieved through conciliation or negotiation, backed up by the very real threat that our pro bono representation would take our clients through to a Court hearing and judgment if necessary.

Our clients were harassed at work across a range of industries – in cafés, pubs, fast food restaurants and fancy hotels; in retail; in finance; in aged and disability care; in hairdressing; in real estate; in transport and in agriculture.  Some were teenagers, some were parents. Some put up with unwelcome sexual comments, some were touched or squeezed or slapped while they worked. Four were sexually assaulted at or after work events.  All of them felt embarrassed, humiliated and violated.

The common factors in each matter was an abuse of power and the harasser’s lack of fear of any consequences due to employers who took little responsibility and had failed to implement effective training and a real workplace policy with teeth.

Sexual harassment law has become more complicated, with a new (and untested) legislated positive duty on employers to take steps to eliminate harassment, potential paths through multiple jurisdictions to choose from, and decisions of real consequence to be made by each complainant about whether a faster process containing the possibility of civil penalties under the Fair Work Act works better than a slower process with a new (untested) costs regime under the Sex Discrimination Act.  The nature of conciliation is changing and more and more respondents are “lawyering up”. 

It is essential that the expanded rights made available recently as a consequence of the Respect at Work reforms are available to people who have been harassed, through potential complainants having access to informed legal advice and representation. We see our pro bono sexual harassment work as some of the most important and consequential work which we conduct.  We know it makes a difference – one of our clients described our representation this year as “an absolute godsend".