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Sexual Harrasment at Workplace

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Sexual harassment is a form of bullying or coercion of a sexual nature. The effect of sexual harassment differs from person to person and depends on the severity of the incidence, but in all the cases is affects the well-being of a person and environment of an organization negatively. This form of intimidation is not new in Australian workplace. NSW Tribunal Observation says that “a person is sexually harassed if he or she is subjected to unsolicited and unwelcome sexual conduct by a person who stands in a position of power in relation to him or her”. [O’Callaghan v Loder (no 2) [1983] 3 NSW LR 89 at 92] The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) makes sexual harassment unlawful. Sexual harassment continues to be a gender issue where one third of the women have experienced some kind of harassment from the age of 15 compared to one in ten men. (AHRC 2008 National Survey finidings)
Nearly one in five complaints received by the Australian Human Rights Commission under theSex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) relate to sexual harassment. The vast majority of these take place in the workplace.2 (Australian Human Rights Commission, 'Annual Report 2006-2007')
A telephone poll commissioned by the Commission in 2003 found that over 28 per cent of women had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, compared to seven per cent of men. Less than one third of interviewees from the Commission's telephone survey who experienced sexual harassment in the workplace made a formal report or complaint about the sexual harassment. (Australian Human Rights Commission, '20 Years On: The Challenges Continue, Sexual Harassment in the Australian Workplace' (2004))
One of the many findings of the 2008 listening tour is that in Australia 22% of women and 5% of men aged 18-64 have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in their lifetime, compared to 28% of women and 7% of men in 2003.
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