Your Call’s CEO, Nathan Luker, spoke with The Financial Review on how to speak up about workplace sexual harassment.
…When we witness something questionable or wrong in a group environment such as the workplace – this could be sexual harassment, a racist comment, bullying or fraud – we often incorrectly assume that someone else will say something. This ultimately results in nobody speaking up and the behaviour going unchecked. According to Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, although one in three workers in 2018 said they had been sexually harassed in the previous five years, that compares with one in five in 2012 and one in 10 in 2003.
Although the onus is largely on organisations to break the pattern of under-reporting by creating safe workplaces where employees feel empowered to speak up, as individuals we have an important role to play.
It is particularly important that those most senior in organisations speak up, given their ethical obligation to act as model employees and to demonstrate a zero-tolerance approach to poor behaviour. The Australian attitude of not “dobbing on your mates” does not belong in a safe workplace.
Published on October 21 2020 in The Australian Financial Review.