Sexual Harassment record compensation payout

Sexual Harassment record compensation payout – The Federal Court has ordered a Sydney jeweller to pay a record sum in damages after finding its owner had sexually harassed one of his employees.

An employee of a Sydney-based jeweller has been awarded $268,000 in damages by the Federal Court found that her employer had sexual harassed and victimised her.

This compensation payout surpassed the previous record of $170.000 awarded in damages

In the decision, Federal Court Justice Katzmann found that the employee had been badgered with unwanted advances from her employer, and had also been victimised for taking her complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in August 2020.

The owner of the jewellery store had confessed romantic feelings for the employee in January 2020, and had continued to make advances towards her over a prolonged period after she told him she was not interested in a romantic relationship with him.

The owner repeatedly made comments about her appearance, sent her inappropriate text messages and gave her thousands of dollars’ worth of unsolicited gifts, including jewellery from the store. She also reported an occasion when he had touched her inappropriately.

Following the ongoing behaviour the employee experienced anxiety and insomnia. She taking time off to recover and returning to work, she said her working relationship with her employer started to deteriorate.

After finding in the employee’s favour, Justice Katzmann ordered the business to compensate the employee with $140,000 in general damages, $15,000 in aggravated damages, $23,070 for past economic loss, $46,284 for future economic loss, $3000 for future out-of-pocket expenses and $40,000 for victimisation.

Sexual Harassment record compensation payout – The compensation payout in this case illustrate the approach to workplace sexual harassment that is now being taken.

On 25 November 2022, the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act 2022 was passed into Law. The Act to implements recommendations from the AHRC 2020 Respect@Work report. It has significantly strengthened Australia’s regulatory framework in respect of sex discrimination, and in particular, sexual harassment.

The New Positive Duty

The centrepiece of the Act was the introduction of a positive duty to prevent sex discrimination and sexual harassment.

The Act amended the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) by introducing a new positive duty for all employers to take ‘reasonable and proportionate measures’ to eliminate, as far as possible, unlawful sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, hostile work environments and victimisation. This duty will coexist with existing duties under work health and safety laws, including the duty of employers to provide a safe working environment for workers, so far as reasonably practicable.

The Australian Human Rights Commission  concluded in the Respect@Work report that a positive duty shifts the burden from individuals making complaints to employers taking proactive and preventative action.

As the positive duty is an ongoing duty, it shifts the emphasis from a complaints based model to one where employers must continuously assess and evaluate whether they are meeting the requirements of the duty.

Under this new duty, it will be imperative that all employers and organisations adopt preventative measures to address sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace, one of the most important preventative measures is training your employees to understand what sexual harassment is and that it is unlawful.

It is vitally important to note that from 12 December 2023, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) can inquire into compliance with the new positive duty. If non-compliance is reasonably suspected, the AHRC can issue a compliance notice and apply to the Federal Court for orders to direct compliance with the notice.

Sexual Harassment Compliance obligations Training

We have developed 4 programs to help organisation. Full details of the programs can be found here

In short we have;

• An employee programs – designed for all employees to ensure that they understand what sexual harassment is, that it is unlawful and what to do if they expereince or witness sexual harassment in ther workplace
• A managers progam, with the same content as above and advice for managers, employers, business owners etc on how to initially manage sexual harassment complaints from employees.
• The organisational program to help business to ensure compliance with the new positive duty.
• The individual 1:1 program for those who have had issues in relation to their behaviour that may constitute sexual harassment and as part of the remedial action

We recommended that the employee training is conducted twice annually and especially when new employees come on board.

Sexual harassment training can assist you to

* Identify how, where and when sexual harassment might happen

* Work out how you will address sexual harassment if it does happen

* Understand the triggers for sexual harassment

* Help you employees to understand the unacceptable ‘excuses’ for sexual harassment.

• Help to ensure that you as an employer satify your positive duty of care.

Sexual Harassment Compliance Training – Now is the time to act

It may be too late come 12 December 2023. Don’t take the risk. You may be called upon to show that you have complied with the positive duty!! The cost of training could be far less then the cost of defending a sexual harassment claim.

AWPTI can provide your organisation with our Understanding Workplace Sexual Harassment programs. The program can be delivered in person or remotely via Zoom or MS Teams with a flat rate with no limit on attendees.

Details and content of the programs can be found here – https://awpti.com.au/sexual-harassment-training/