A major change: the introduction of a “positive duty” to prevent sexual harassment

In   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/12/from-this-weeks-news-on-human-rights_16.html    I included: 

“Australian Human Rights Commission to crack down on employers who fail to actively prevent workplace sexual harassment”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/12/australian-human-rights-commission-to-crack-down-on-employers-who-fail-to-actively-prevent-workplace-sexual-harassment   “Reflecting on its need, Cody told Guardian Australia there was a “heavy burden” on individuals to come forward.   ...   Captured under the law are ... sexist attitudes   ...   Employees, unions and other bodies will be able to make complaints to the commission via an online portal.”   See also   https://humanrights.gov.au/about/news/media-releases/positive-duty-employers-commissions-powers-commence   and   https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/projects/positive-duty-under-sex-discrimination-act   Good! The webinar on this was particularly good - and I was pleased to hear good consideration of toxic workplaces, and good discussion on standards of evidence in the webinar  

I have had significant involvement with a number of major changes to workplace laws, including the introduction of major OHS changes in this state in the 1980s, the introduction of equal employment opportunity laws nationally in the 90s, changes to introduce gender identity anti-discrimination measures around the year 2000, and the improved DEI work place culture over the last 15 years or so. 

My involvement has ranged from committees to as a Director on a Board, and my experience tells me that the changes introduced are NOT going to be handled by committee actions. 

They will need top-down direction, and adequate resources to rethink and re-structure training - ESPECIALLY for the major change of mindset required to accept the responsibility (which morally, if not legally, has always existed, IMO) for third parties (sub-contractors/service providers) engaged by companies so they could pretend they had nothing to do with/no responsibility for the conduct of companies that, for instance, managed phone calls/bookings (which is a category I have encountered problems with and refuse to engage with unless they can provide adequate assurances of non-discriminatory [i.e., non-abusive] conduct).

I am currently negotiating on a situation which may constitute a breach of the positive duty to prevent discriminatory (i.e., abusive) conduct, and may be about to lodge a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission.  

If I can, I’ll post more about this in due courrse. 

In the meantime, my final thought is how difficult it can be to get the attention of managers for something that may not be on their KPIs (or may not be there in an appropriate fashion * ) - which is a 19^th century management attitude not consistent with a post-pandemic 21st century world where inclusivity is mainly the norm and work from home is an accepted and increasing (albeit resisted by 19^th century management attitudes) part of working. 

 * Inclusivity/DEI is often included in KPIs by means of measuring numbers of complaints and rewarding low numbers of reports, which is morally questionable and ethically concerning given that it potentially creates pressure to address the measured symptom by suppressing/discouraging reports rather than take the healthier, better, more servant leadership oriented approach of measuring, encouraging, and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion

 

The following links are of relevance:

“The Positive Duty under the Sex Discrimination Act”   https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/projects/positive-duty-under-sex-discrimination-act  

And also:

“New protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status”   https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/lgbtiq/projects/new-protection   From 1 August 2013  

“Sexual orientation, gender identity & intersex status discrimination - INFORMATION SHEET”   https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/Information%20sheet%20on%20new%20protections%20in%20the%20Sex%20Discrimination%20Act%20-%20FINAL.pdf   

From p. 4: “Protections for sexual harassment will continue with one change. The sexual harassment provisions will now include that a person’s ‘sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, marital or relationship status’ are now part of the circumstances that can be taken into account when considering whether or not a reasonable person ‘would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated’.”  

“quick guide - Gender Identity”   https://humanrights.gov.au/quick-guide/12039   

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

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