What defines workplace harassment and discrimination?
Harassment involves unwelcome behaviour that intimidates, offends or humiliates a person because of a particular personal characteristic such as race, age, gender, disability, religion or sexuality.
Sexual harassment includes sending explicit or sexually suggestive emails, displaying offensive or pornographic posters or screen savers, and asking intrusive questions about someone’s personal life, including their sex life.
Discrimination occurs when there is a breach of either State or Federal statutes. The usual areas for discriminatory conduct include:
- Failure to hire someone or failure to treat them equally at work, because of their race, religion, age, sex or sexuality
- Terminating workers unfairly because they are ‘different’
- Discriminating against women because of pregnancy
- Discriminating against a person who has family responsibilities
- Making discriminatory allegations in relating to a person’s abilities.
What to do if it occurs
If allegations of harassment or discriminatory conduct occur in the workplace, you should seek immediate legal advice.
If the matters are not resolved at an initial conciliation, the matter can then be taken to either a State or Federal Court where you can claim damages and even loss of income. These cases are complicated and difficult and can take a significant amount of time.
Any allegations of discrimination or harassment need to be considered properly. There is a duty to ensure that those allegations are investigated and that the workplace is safe.
If you’re being harassed or discriminated against, it’s really important that you seek advice immediately. The sooner you do, the sooner the matter can be resolved.
Contact JFM Law on (02) 9199 8597 to speak to our specialist employment law team, or you can email us at wehelp@jfmlaw.com.au.
More information
Join our team as we answer your FAQs about Bullying and Harassment in the workplace. To read the transcript, click here.
The information contained in this post is current at the date of editing – 23 February 2023