Angie, who spoke on the situation we didn’t use her actual title for privateness causes, was working as a waitress when her boss began inappropriately touching her, earlier than cornering and forcibly kissing her. This terrifying state of affairs is so acquainted to so many who it (unacceptably) borders on the mundane.
From the halls of Parliament to celebrated hospitality venues and past, sexual harassment is alarmingly prevalent, with a staggering one in three staff having skilled it up to now 5 years. Like a lot of these folks, Angie made a number of complaints and nothing modified. Like most, Angie couldn’t afford to give up her job instantly, so she had no selection however to maintain working alongside her harasser.
Everyone knows these tales. One other 12 months passes, but extra sexual harassment scandals are unearthed, and essentially the most well-known and vilified rape survivor in Australian historical past sits by way of defamation litigation introduced by her former employer, a high-profile politician. The price of talking out stays excessive and alter feels unacceptably gradual.
Australian lawmakers realize it too. Kate Jenkins’ landmark Respect@Work report launched in 2020 described sexual harassment in Australia as “endemic”. Practically 1 in 5 staff are sexually harassed at work every year. Similar to Angie, half of these folks expertise repeated harassment, and half of these find yourself enduring harassment for greater than a 12 months.
The Albanese authorities got here to energy having dedicated to implement all 55 Respect@Work suggestions, together with six excellent legislative reforms that had been kicked down the street by the Morrison authorities. Handed Thursday, the Albanese authorities made good on its promise, touchdown the ultimate main plank of legislative reform from the report.
The Value Safety Modification represents essentially the most important reform for entry to justice in Australia in a technology. It removes the prohibitive monetary barrier generally known as “hostile prices threat” for individuals who expertise discrimination and harassment. The modification brings us into line with the method of comparable nations all over the world, recognising that there’s little level in having legal guidelines if folks can’t afford to entry the courts to implement them.
The statistics are stark: only one in 230,000 victim-survivors of office sexual harassment find yourself bringing proceedings in an Australian courtroom, in line with new evaluation by the ACTU.
The reality is that in litigation, even when your case has benefit and a robust probability of successful, you all the time run the chance, regardless of how small, that you’ll lose. The previous rule meant that victim-survivors needed to threat being ordered to pay hostile prices (the opposite aspect’s authorized invoice) in the event that they misplaced, on high of their very own authorized charges. When individuals who expertise discrimination come up towards employers with massive sources, these charges can clock as much as tens and even a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} — a life-changing monetary gamble to tackle.
Angie, like most individuals, couldn’t afford that kind of threat. She was successfully barred from justice as a result of she wasn’t wealthy sufficient to threat bringing her case, despite the fact that it was legally robust.
Adversarial prices haven’t solely been stopping victim-survivors of discrimination from attending to courtroom, they’ve been suppressing honest outcomes earlier than courtroom too. It’s an open secret amongst discrimination consultants that legal professionals usually advise corporations accused of discrimination to supply low-ball settlement figures throughout Australian Human Rights Fee conciliation processes, as a result of they know there’s a particularly low threat that victim-survivors will be capable to tackle the monetary threat of going to courtroom. This modification straight targets this unequal energy dynamic.
Employers like Merivale and Swillhouse — two widespread Sydney-based hospitality teams who’ve just lately come underneath hearth for allegations of unsafe office cultures that place girls in danger — now exist in a world the place there’s a real threat that they are going to be taken to courtroom in the event that they fail to reckon with their tasks. It’s a change that victim-survivors, group authorized companies and different frontline companies and advocates have been calling for for years. It means girls like Angie who labored in hospitality (however not for one in every of these two teams underneath hearth) now have a greater probability of searching for accountability by way of the Australian Human Rights Fee, after which, in the event that they so select, by way of the courts, with useful ripple results throughout the nation.
However the price of change has been unacceptably gradual. It has taken 4 years to implement the Respect@Work report and the goalposts for change really feel maddeningly unambitious. Australia got here fourth within the current Paris Olympics, with a staggering 18 gold medals (over 70% of which have been received by girls). But we landed a paltry twenty fourth within the World Financial Discussion board’s World Gender Hole Report this 12 months, sliding backwards from 2023.
We’re doing poorly throughout the board, whether or not you have a look at misogyny in our tradition or inequality in our programs. The latest Nationwide Gender Compass survey discovered that outdated, sexist beliefs — like heterosexual males discovering higher-earning girls threatening — stay alarmingly frequent. The group most probably to commit sexual violence in Australia are boys aged 15-19. A Senate inquiry into Lacking and Murdered First Nations girls revealed that First Nations girls and kids are disproportionately affected by males’s violence, ignored by mainstream media, and failed by police. And but no-one has been held accountable.
Whereas gender justice advocates are calling for change and superb work is occurring, there’s nonetheless a protracted street forward. We want an formidable imaginative and prescient for the place we’re going as a rustic. What kind of place do we would like this to be for our daughters — and our sons and non-binary youngsters for that matter? Iceland has sat at number one within the World Financial Discussion board Gender Hole Report for 15 years. What are they getting proper? On the very least, certainly we will muster some Trans-Tasman competitors and work to pip New Zealand out of tenth spot.
In case you or somebody you recognize is impacted by sexual assault or violence, name 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or go to 1800RESPECT.org.au.
