A worker who was sexually harassed by a senior colleague has won a $305,000 payout after it was proven that the male senior colleague showed her pornographic videos, sex toys and asked her about her sex life in a workplace that normalised overt sexist behaviour.

Sexual Harassment Could be Costly to Business

A worker who was sexually harassed by a senior colleague has won a $305,000 payout after it was proven that the male senior colleague showed her pornographic videos, sex toys and asked her about her sex life in a workplace that normalised overt sexist behaviour.

The Federal Court found the principal and senior employee of a fast-food restaurant sexually harassed a young supervisor and victimised her for complaining about the senior employee's conduct.

The worker claimed that the restaurant was a male-dominated workplace and the owner of the business had led and participated in discussions about female customers and former workers, making comments about their bodies and sexuality. This involved workers commenting on former workers or customers breasts, bottoms and clothing, calling them "skanks" or "whores".

I was once called into a business that employed both male and female workers in a woodworking workshop to advise on a claim by a female employee of sexual harassment by a male employee. When discussing the matter with the employer he stated words to the effect of he “didn’t see much in her complaint, as she gives as good as she gets”.

My response to this comment was that if the matter progressed to a Court or the Queensland Anti-discrimination Commission our defense would then be, that sexual harassment is endemic in the workplace, so that should minimise the female employee's complaint, which is ludicrous. 

Employers are deemed to be vicariously responsible for the actions of their employees, even if they were unaware of what was happening. The only real defense an employer has in these matters is to show that they have taken all reasonable action to stop this action occurring.  A defense on the employers part is to have established processes in place such as policy documents, an avenue to rapidly address complaints and dissemination of information to employees informing them that action of that type is not tolerated in the workplace.

If you need any further information on the above, please contact me on 0428112009 or via my email at john@lambwrc.com.au.