Unions, labour lawyers, barristers and women’s rights activists are using the momentum of the #MeToo movement to fight against workplace sexual harassment.

The NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Judith Kiejda met with 50 other women at a roundtable at NSW Parliament in August to discuss ways to prevent sexual harassment and empower victims.

“We are a female-dominated union; this is the time for us to capitalise on this movement against sexual harassment and try to get some remedies in place,” Judith said.

Incredibly, sexual harassment is not explicitly outlawed under the current Fair Work Act, even though 68 per cent of sexual harassment complaints are workplace-related. The roundtable heard of cases of sexual harassment where the victims were blamed, moved on to other jobs or sacked, and suffered enormous mental and financial consequences.

“Quite frankly, sexual harassment and bullying are huge issues in the nursing world,” Judith told The Lamp.

“I think a whole lot of people just put up with it because the remedy for them, if they are brave enough to speak up, just doesn’t work out for them.”

Unions NSW Assistant Secretary Emma Maiden said that “apart from general obligations under workplace health and safety legislation, employers don’t have to do anything to prevent sexual harassment”.

A discussion paper prepared by Unions NSW is calling for a “positive duty” on employers to prevent sexual harassment.

“If we could put the onus on the employer rather than the individual making the complaint and back it up with legislative reform, that would make a huge difference,” Judith said.

Fair Work Commission should cover sexual harassment

Unions NSW’s discussion paper recommends that “sexual harassment should be subject to risk management” under workplace health and safety legislation. And it calls for the Fair Work Act to include provisions specifically dealing with sexual harassment matters.

This would give sexual harassment victims access to the conciliation processes of the Fair Work Commission and the option of a hearing in the Fair Work jurisdiction of the Federal Court or Federal Circuit Court.

Currently workers can take complaints to general courts, often at great personal and financial cost, or through the Human Rights Commission, which has limited powers and lengthy processes.

“Workers and their unions should also have the ability to bring disputes to the Fair Work Commission on behalf of a member of group of members,” the paper said.

The day-long meeting at Parliament House discussed how casual and contract workers, and those from non-English speaking and migrant backgrounds on temporary visas, were particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment.

Bystanders and whistle-blowers also need greater rights and responsibilities.

“The nursing community is just like a microcosm of the community in general”, Judith says. “If somebody does speak up and you go and dig a little bit, there are witnesses but they are just not brave enough to speak up. If we had a framework that allowed people to speak up, I think people would be in a much better place.”

“We’ve been fighting for these clauses for a long, long time,” Judith said. “But with #MeToo we are closer than ever before to fixing some of these things.”

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