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Workplace Harassment

Harassment

Harassment

23 June 2025 (Last updated 3 Dec 2025)

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Bullying and harassment may seem similar but the legal approach to each one is different. As an employer, it’s crucial to make sure you know how to handle each one.

Harassment is any kind of behaviour that undermines someone’s dignity and is unacceptable or humiliating to them. Unlike bullying, harassment is discriminatory and targets someone because of their age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, race, disability or ethnicity. It can occur in a series of repeated events, or as a one-off incident.

Sexual harassment

Sexual harassment is where there is unwanted and unwelcome attention of a sexual nature. This may be physical or verbal. It includes indecent assault, deliberate physical contact, or the display of pornographic material. It also includes offensive language, provocative suggestions, or unwelcome phone calls or emails. It is up to the victim to decide whether the behaviour they experience is an act of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment in the workplace

All workers have the right to a work environment that is safe and free from sexual harassment. Employees, potential employees, and employers are all protected from sexual harassment in the workplace and connected to work.

Sexual harassment is defined as:

  • An unwelcome sexual advance or request for sexual favours.
  • Any other form of unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.

What constitutes sexual harassment?

For behaviour to be interpreted as sexual harassment, it has to be reasonable to expect that there is a possibility that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated by the actions of the harasser.

This means that whether behaviour is considered sexual harassment depends on how a reasonable person would interpret the events of the situation.

When working out whether conduct is sexual harassment, the intention of the alleged harasser doesn’t matter – all that counts is the nature of their actions and behaviour.

Sexual harassment doesn’t have to be repeated or continuous and can take the form of a one-off incident. Sexual harassment in the course of employment can be considered serious misconduct, constituting a valid reason for dismissal, and in some cases, a criminal offence that either the employer or harassed employee may decide to report to the police.

Examples of workplace sexual harassment

A wide range of inappropriate workplace behaviour can be deemed as sexual harassment. Examples include:

  • Physical contact, such as unwelcome touching.
  • Intentionally brushing against other workers.
  • Staring or leering at another worker.
  • A sexually suggestive comment or joke.
  • A sexually explicit picture or poster.
  • An unwanted invitation to go out on a date.
  • A request for sex.
  • Intrusive questioning about another worker’s sex life or body.
  • An insult or a taunt that is sexual in nature.
  • A sexually explicit email or text message.

Is sexual harassment a criminal offence?

According to Australian law, sexual harassment is defined as any unwanted sexual behaviour where a reasonable person would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. It has nothing to do with mutual attraction or consensual behaviour.

Under the Sex Discrimination Act, Sexual harassment is unlawful in different areas of public life, including employment, and can constitute a punishable criminal offence.

Protection from sexual harassment in the workplace

As well as an act perpetrated by individuals, sexual harassment can happen when a work environment or culture is sexually charged or ‘hostile’, even if the conduct is not directed at any particular employee.

A person who sexually harasses someone else is primarily responsible for their own behaviour. However, in some cases employers can also be held responsible for sexual harassment by their employees. This is called ‘vicarious liability’.

In many situations, vicarious liability applies unless the employer can prove they took all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.

Protections under the Fair Work Act (2009)

Under the Fair Work Act (2009), a person or company may be liable for sexual harassment committed by an employee or agent working in connection with their business.

Fair Work Act laws protect certain workers in Australia, including future workers. A range of people connected to a business or organisation are covered, including:

  • Employees
  • Potential employees
  • Employers and business owners
  • Contractors and subcontractors
  • Outworkers
  • Apprentices and trainees
  • Interns
  • Work experience students
  • Volunteers

As well as the Fair Work Act, there are protections against sexual harassment under other Australian laws.

Racial harassment

Racial harassment is any unwanted or hurtful behaviour, whether deliberate or not, based on race, colour, ethnicity, national origin or immigrant status. This may be physical or verbal. It includes verbal abuse, derogatory comments and exclusion from normal work events. It also includes physical attack, racist graffiti or inciting others to perform harassing activities.

Much like cases of sexual harassment, the victim decides what racial harassment is for them.

Examples of racial harassment include:

  • Making offensive remarks about a person’s race.
  • Copying or making fun of the way a person speaks.
  • Making jokes about a person’s race.
  • Calling people racist names.
  • Deliberately mispronouncing or mocking people’s names.

An employer’s responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent racial harassment is set out in federal and state anti-discrimination laws, as well as the Fair Work Act. Collectively, this legislation clearly defines racial harassment as an infringement of workplace laws.

Making a workplace harassment complaint

There are a few ways for a person who has been harassed in the workplace to make a complaint. These include:

  • Reporting the incident to their managers and seniors.
  • Applying to the Fair Work Commission.
  • Lodging a complaint with another government body, such as the Australian Human Rights Commission.

As mentioned above, some forms of harassment could constitute a criminal offence and should be reported to the police.

Managing harassment

Business owners can take reasonable steps to prevent workplace harassment by:

  • Creating a safe physical and online working environment.
  • Providing information, instruction, training and support about the importance of preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.
  • Practicing early intervention and quickly stopping any offensive behaviour.
  • Encouraging employees to report cases of sexual harassment.

Setting a clear policy

Most importantly, you need to have a clear policy to protect your employees from any type of bullying or harassment at work. It should set out how employees can have their complaints resolved and ideally, help to stop the employment relationship from breaking down.

Anti-discrimination laws, health and safety laws, and bullying laws are different and constantly changing, so you need to stay up to date.

Behaviour that isn’t sexual harassment might still be considered bullying or discrimination in the workplace. It could also breach anti-discrimination or workplace health & safety laws.

Create safe workplaces with Peninsula

Business owners and employers have to keep on top of everything from finances to staff management and health and safety. A big part of this includes creating a safe and secure workplace, free from harassment. Peninsula offers tailored HR policies, documents, and resources that can ensure your workplace is protected and secure. Call us on 1300933819 to find out how we can help you.

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Violence in the workplace

Workplace violence and aggression occur when an employee is abused, threatened, or assaulted by either a co-worker, employer, manager, customer, or member of the general public. In essence, the definition of workplace violence extends to any action or behaviour that could lead to an incident that impacts the health and safety of an employee. What are some examples of workplace violence? Workplace violence and aggression covers a broad range of actions and behaviours that create a risk to health and safety, for example: physical assault such as biting, scratching, hitting, kicking, pushing, grabbing, or throwing objects intentionally coughing or spitting on someone sexual assault or any other form of indecent physical contact harassment or aggressive behaviour that creates a fear of violence, such as stalking, sexual harassment, verbal threats and abuse, or yelling and swearing hazing or initiation practices for new or young workers gendered violence, which is any behaviour directed at any person that affects a person because of their sex, gender or sexual orientation, or because they do not adhere to socially prescribed gender roles, that creates a risk to health and safety, and violence from family or domestic relationship when this occurs at the workplace, including if the person's workplace is their home Violence or aggression may happen: at a worker's usual workplace where a worker is working remotely, including if the person's workplace is their home in a place where the worker is undertaking work at a different location (such as a client's home) or when a worker is engaging in a work-related activity (such as work-related corporate event or if you host a work-related social activity like a Christmas party) How to deal with violence in the workplace? It is an employer’s responsibility, as far as is reasonably practical, to provide and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for all your employees, customers, visitors, and members of the general public. In the first instance employers will be expected to have assessed potential for workplace violence and eliminated the risks as far as possible. As this is hard to guarantee in most workplaces, the employer will then be responsible for managing to further reduce the risk of the outstanding risks. The management style that is opted for is dependent on the type of violence and the severity of the situation. Having a clear policy will provide clarity on this situation and keep employees informed on how to best respond if caught off guard in a violent situation in the workplace. Addressing violence between workers Violence may also occur within the workplace between your employees or workers, including supervisors, managers, apprentices, and volunteers. Violence can also occur between workers engaged by different employers, for example building contractors at the same site, delivery workers or retail workers with a tenancy at the same shopping centre. To manage the risk of internal violence and aggression at the workplace, consider: setting, modelling and enforcing acceptable behaviour standards for all people in the workplace addressing inappropriate behaviour early and the reasons for those behaviours making sure employees have a range of ways to report incidents informally, formally, anonymously or confidentially What is a workplace violence policy? A workplace violence policy can help set out how the workplace will prevent and respond to violence and establish expectations about behaviours in the workplace. This can be combined with the general health and safety policy or be its separate policy. A workplace policy dealing with violence and aggression may include: a clear statement that the workplace will not accept any form of violence or aggression, including from clients, customers, members of the public or between workers examples of types of behaviours that are and are not allowed the control measures implemented to prevent violence at the workplace, including ensuring the risks of gendered violence are considered and addressed the measures and procedures for dealing with violent incidents, both at the time of the incident and after the incident the consequences for breaching the policy the duties of all levels of workers, including managers and supervisors and your responsibilities as the employer how workers can report a concern or incident and encouraging workers to report incidents, no matter how minor the process the organisation will undertake when receiving a report or dealing with a concern, and information about support services available and referral information for all people involved What can employers do to prevent workplace violence? A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has a duty under WHS laws to eliminate risks to health and safety of workers and other persons so far as is reasonably practicable. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks, they must be minimised so far as is reasonably practicable. Under WHS laws, employers must also, so far as is reasonably practicable: provide and maintain a work environment that is without risk to the health and safety of workers provide adequate and accessible facilities for the welfare of workers to carry out their work give workers the necessary information, instruction, training or supervision to do their job safely and without risks to health, and consult with workers, and health and safety representatives (HSRs) if you have them, about health and safety issues that may directly affect them Risk management Employers must do whatever they can to eliminate or minimise the health and safety risks of workplace violence and aggression so far as is reasonably practicable. This process is known as risk management and involves: identifying the hazards assessing the associated risks implementing control measures to eliminate or minimise risks, and regularly reviewing control measures to ensure they remain effective Workplace violence prevention strategies and training Whether an employer wants to prevent internal workplace violence (i.e. between employees) or violence involving customers and the general public, onsite training is an effective way to give employees the skills and knowledge they need to handle a violent scenario. Employers can select from several reputable third-party training providers, who can potentially provide training from the convenience of your own worksite. These training sessions help employees to: Report, recognise, and defuse a potentially violent situation – before it erupts Understand their and the employer’s legal duty of care Familiarise themselves with procedures to deal with armed robberies, bomb threats Learn hospital code black training which may be relevant to employees working in the health care industry Study conflict resolution procedures Depending on the provider, employers may have the freedom to customise the contents of the training course to suit the business so that employees learn how to deal with situations that relate specifically to their worksite. Create safe workplaces with Peninsula Implement strong and specific health and safety policies that meet the needs of your business and employees. Peninsula offers tailored HR and WHS documentation that ensures you meet all your obligations and responsibilities. Call us on 1300750491 to learn how we can help you. This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute as business or legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. It does not take into consideration your specific business, industry or circumstances. You should seek legal or other professional advice regarding matters as they relate to you or your business. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Peninsula Group disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions contained in this information or any failure to update or correct this information. It is your responsibility to assess and verify the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of the information in this article.

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