Tick and flick anti-harassment practices are damaging your workplace health!

A recent WA government study into the mining sector (click here) found burnout, bullying and sexual harassment have remained high despite recent initiatives and legislative change.

Whilst some of the more egregious types of behaviours appear to have reduced, the most common behaviours experienced by women now focuses on:

• being put down or condescended to

• offensive sexist remarks like suggestions that women were not suited to the type of work they did

Nearly 2 out of 5 interview participants considered that recent initiatives fuelled by increased media attention and other legislative changes appeared nongenuine and only to achieve ‘surface compliance’.

Our Take

Whilst disappointing, these results are not surprising. We understand that there is often a significant challenge in demonstrating compliance and at the same time getting genuine buy-in. That should not stop best practice organisations from continuing their current initiatives.

Kate Jenkins report in 2020 showed many organisations how sophisticated and nuanced sexual harassment in the post Me Too era had become. The real challenge now is that employers who are seeking to just implement as a ‘tick and flick’ exercise are going to be ‘called out’ or threatened with being ‘cancelled’.

Action items

• revisit your psychosocial training and policies/procedures

• if you haven’t covered matters like : putdowns, condescending behaviour, gendered based performance standards, invasive personal questions and innuendo based communication – you’re not up-to-date!

Edge Legal

Relationships. Respect. Results