Complaints

Endnotes - Working without fear: Results of the Sexual Harassment National Telephone Survey (2012)

Sex Discrimination

Working without fear:

Results of the Sexual Harassment National Telephone Survey

Endnotes

  1. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 20 Years On: The Challenges Continue...; Sexual Harassment in the Australian Workplace (2004). At http://humanrights.gov.au/sex_discrimination/workplace/challenge_continues/data/download.html (viewed 4 October 2012).
  2. Australian Human Rights Commission, Sexual Harassment: Serious Business; Results of the 2008 Sexual Harassment National Telephone Survey (2008). At http://humanrights.gov.au/sexualharassment/serious_business/index.html (2008 National Survey) (viewed 4 October 2012).
  3. Each wave of the sexual harassment national telephone survey investigated the prevalence, nature and reporting of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces in the preceding five year period (2003 National Survey: 1998 to 2003; 2008 National Survey: 2003 to 2008; 2012 National Survey: 2007 to 2012).
  4. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, A Bad Business: Review of Sexual Harassment Complaints 2002 (2002). At http://humanrights.gov.au/sex_discrimination/workplace/bad_business/index.html (viewed
    4 October 2012).
  5. Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Gender Equality: What Matters to Australian Women and Men, The Listening Tour Community Report (2008), 14-15. At http://humanrights.gov.au/sex_discrimination/listeningtour/index.html (viewed 4 October 2012).
  6. Australian Human Rights Commission, Gender Equality Blueprint (2010), 19. At http://humanrights.gov.au/sex_discrimination/publication/blueprint/index.html (viewed 4 October 2012).
  7. Australian Human Rights Commission, Review into the Treatment of Women in the Australian Defence Force: Phase 2 Report (2012), 250-278. At https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/defence-review-home(viewed 4 October 2012)
  8. Every year, Roy Morgan Research conducts over 50,000 face-to-face interviews in Australia. These interviews form the basis of its Single Source Database. Approximately 40% of participants also return additional self-completion diaries, the Product Poll and Media Diary.
  9. A public notice was placed on the website of the Commission and sent to its ‘Indigenous Social Justice’ electronic mailing list. See https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/working-without-fear-results-sexual-harassment-national(viewed 4 October 2012). A public notice was also placed on the website of the National Congress of Australia’s First People inviting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to nominate to participate in the 2012 National Survey.
  10. According to the 2006 Census, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples represent 1.8% of the Australian population aged 15 years and over.
  11. See also Paula McDonald, Sara Charlesworth and Somali Cerise, ‘Below the “Tip of the Iceberg”: Extra Legal Responses to Workplace Sexual Harassment’ (2011) 34 Women’s Studies International Forum 278, 287; Sara Charlesworth, Paula McDonald and Somali Cerise, ‘Naming and Claiming Sexual Harassment in Australia’ (2011) 46(2) Australian Journal of Social Issues 141, 155.
  12. It is important to acknowledge that sexual harassment is also unlawful under the anti-discrimination laws of all Australian states and territories and that there are some differences in the legal regulation and operation of the prohibitions against sexual harassment in those jurisdictions.
  13. Section 28A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) defines sexual harassment as follows:

(1) For the purposes of this Division, a person sexually harasses another person (the person harassed) if:

(a) the person makes an unwelcome sexual advance, or an unwelcome request for sexual favours, to the person harassed; or

(b) engages in other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the person harassed;

in circumstances in which a reasonable person, having regard to all the circumstances, would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated.

(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1), the circumstances to be taken into account include, but are not limited to, the following:

(a) the sex, age, marital status, sexual preference, religious belief, race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, of the person harassed;

(b) the relationship between the person harassed and the person who made the advance or request or who engaged in the conduct;

(c) any disability of the person harassed;

(d) any other relevant circumstance.

(2) In this section: conduct of a sexual nature includes making a statement of a sexual nature to a person, or in the presence of a person, whether the statement is made orally or in writing.

  1. Sex and Age Discrimination Legislation Amendment Act 2011 (Cth), ss 53-54.
  2. Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), s 28A(1A).
  3. Above, s 28B. A ‘workplace participant’ is defined as: ‘(a) an employer or employee; (b) a commission agent or contract worker; (c) a partner in a partnership’.
  4. Above, s 28G.
  5. Although the incidence of sexual harassment was higher in 2003 (28%), this difference was explained in the 2008 National Survey report. See 2008 National Survey, above 2, 11-12, 37-38.
  6. The 2008 National Survey did not disaggregate this data on the basis of sex.
  7. See also Charlesworth, McDonald and Cerise, above 11.
  8. Australian Human Rights Commission, Encourage. Support. Act! Bystander Approaches to Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (2012), 3. At http://humanrights.gov.au/sexualharassment/bystander/index.html (viewed 4 October 2012).
  9. Ibid.
  10. It should be noted that the 2003 National Survey data is based on respondents who reported sexual harassment in the workplace in the last five years based on the legal definition only. Data from the 2008 and 2012 National Surveys is based on those who reported sexual harassment in the workplace according to the legal definition and on those who experienced at least one type of behaviour considered to constitute sexual harassment. Comparisons will therefore be made between the 2008 National Survey and 2012 National Survey only, with the exception of two items in the 2012 National Survey list of behaviours that were not included in the 2008 National Survey (‘sexual gestures, indecent sexual exposure or inappropriate display of the body’ and ‘any other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature’).
  11. It should be noted that the small decrease for most types of behaviours does not imply an overall decrease in the incidence of sexual harassment. Rather, this question reflects the distribution of the types of behaviours experienced across the working population. The 2012 National Survey contained two extra response options that may have affected the distribution of responses across the remaining behaviour types.
  12. This includes ‘unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing’, ‘inappropriate physical contact’ and ‘actual or attempted rape’. The majority (10/14) of respondents who experienced physical harassment (n=14) said it was a one-off incident. Two respondents reported that the harassment was sporadic: for one of those respondents, it lasted four to six months and, for the other, it was ongoing. In contrast, the 2008 National Survey found that respondents who experienced physical harassment were more likely to report that it lasted in excess of one month.
  13. Sexual harassment was also most likely to be a one-off incident for those who experienced non-physical harassment (n=309) (41%), consistent with the findings of the 2008 National Survey.
  14. While the 2003 and 2008 National Surveys recorded the age of respondents, neither survey asked respondents their age at the time they were sexually harassed.
  15. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force, Australia (6291.0.55.001) (August 2012). At http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6291.0.55.001 (viewed 4 October 2012).
  16. For the purposes of the 2012 National Survey, ‘small workplaces’ means workplaces with fewer than 25 employees, ‘medium workplaces’ means workplaces with 26 to 100 employees and ‘large workplaces’ means workplaces with more than 100 employees.
  17. See also Sara Charlesworth et al., Formal Complaints of Workplace Sexual Harassment lodged with Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissions (2012). At http://w3.unisa.edu.au/hawkeinstitute/cwl/documents/sexual-harassment-report.pdf (viewed
    4 October 2012).
  18. Australian Human Rights Commission, above 21, 3.
  19. Above, 20-23.
  20. Above, 35-40.

^Top