Sexual Harassment & The Need to Speak Up

A) It is important to address your health concerns as a matter of priority. This will inevitably include seeking expert clinical advice about whether you are fit for work and how continuing the employment or working with the alleged perpetrator will affect your future health and well-being. You then need to investigate whether or not you have grounds to file a sex discrimination and sexual harassment complaint under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 with the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). Such a complaint can be made either whilst you are employed or indeed following the cessation of your employment. Your employer will then may be put on the task of providing a response to the AHRC in relation to the steps that were undertaken in investigating your complaint. The AHRC may also facilitate a mediation with your employer and the perpetrator to see if your complaint can be resolved. In such mediation, you will hopefully have a full and frank opportunity to openly discuss your concerns and propose avenues for the address which may include the provision of personal apologies, the undertaking of further training for all nominated respondents or parties negotiating a resignation if necessary and attainment for damages for the hurt and humiliation caused. It may also be appropriate to seek legal advice from a solicitor who can write on your behalf to your employer to protect your workplace rights in this area. Ultimately, it is not just the employee perpetrator that may be liable, but indeed your employer can be held to be vicariously liable for any employee’s conduct and if your matter does not resolve at the AHRC, you can file the matter in the Federal Court jurisdiction where your employer will be answerable and have to provide evidence about all the alleged conduct and the investigative steps taken.

There is no question, this is a clear-cut case of sexual harassment, where your senior manager who has a position of authority, has made very inappropriate comments about your appearance and your clothing. More importantly, he has asked very personal questions about your private life, which has made you feel very uncomfortable. Furthermore, the personal insights about his private life as to his relationship with his partner are highly inappropriate and will constitute sexual harassment. Sexual Harassment can be both direct and indirect, thereby the observations can not only be directed towards you but off-the-cuff comments about one’s life and others.

Connect Legal has assisted many clients over the last two decades in similar situations where a senior manager has made very sexually suggestive comments about clients visiting the store. These comments and sexual nicknames once again are clear cases of sexual harassment, even though they’re not directed at you. We again reiterate that indirect discrimination occurs regularly in the workplace, and one has to be very refrained about making sexual comments, not only about work colleagues but all stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, and contractors.

Firstly, you should be communicating with a very experienced employment and discrimination lawyer in this area, that is very experienced at the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Federal Circuit Court. Only if you are comfortable with your selected solicitor, you should instruct them to lodge a sexual harassment claim at the AHRC. The process from lodgment to the mediation of this matter can take at least 6 months. If your mediation is unsuccessful, thereafter you have 60 days to lodge your statement of claim at the Federal Circuit Court, where you have to particularize the allegations, the facts, and the substantive law, Connect Legal is very experienced in all these jurisdictions, our team is only a phone call away and we are even happy to come and visit you close to home to have a confidential free discussion.

Sexual harassment is any unwanted or unwelcome sexual behavior where a reasonable person would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would feel offended, humiliated or intimidated. The harassment can be both direct or indirect, and in this case, it is indirect with comments made about others in the workplace. Firstly, you should write an email to your manager outlining the allegations and how this makes you feel uncomfortable. If you don’t receive a reasonable response, then you should provide a written email to Senior Management outlining the above sexual harassment allegations. Sometimes management will find a workable solution, but our experience has shown that that is always very challenging. We would strongly recommend that you lodge a sexual harassment claim, and remain firm because experiences show that in these hostile workplaces, the word ‘denial’ will pop up left right and center.

Indeed, Connect Legal has helped male individuals like yourself in defending and safeguarding their employment and discrimination rights at both the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. Employees need to understand " work is work" and not an environment to discuss in depth their personal and sexual activities outside of work. What is more hurtful is the sexual advances he is making toward you and this is undoubtedly unwelcome sexual conduct. What people do in their spare time is their dilemma, but they cannot sexually harass fellow employees at work and especially when you have asked them to cease on numerous occasions.

We have fielded many calls over the last two decades from a multitude of female healthcare workers, and understand it is not very easy to speak up. Sometimes it is the fear of not being believed, other times it is the impact on one’s job. However, what is crucial is that you need to speak up and defend your employment and discrimination rights, and if you believe that your credit might be questioned, then it might be time to speak to a very experienced discrimination lawyer. Connect Legal is one of the very few firms Australia-wide that is truly experienced in Discrimination Law. We will conduct extensive telephone calls with you, and more importantly, travel out to see you for those vital face-to-face interviews.

Resigning from your employment is not easy, because it will have a significant impact on your income stream, but at the same time being ethical and honorable in this very toxic workplace is more important. Toxic workplaces are not conducive to employee morale and productivity. More importantly, there may be serious breaches of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, and the Corporations Act 2000. Accordingly, our strong recommendation would be that your place forward your concerns to the Senior Managing Partner, and if the matters you raise are not remedied within a period of 4 weeks (an investigation may be required and a memo sent out to cease the behavior) then our strong advice would be that resignation is inevitable. If you face this scenario as various clients have over the last two decades, then please contact Connect Legal, its senior solicitors, and within 48 hours we will organize a face-to-face interview to ascertain the allegations and facts regarding your toxic workplace and impending resignation.

This is a very disturbing situation when we receive these types of calls because you have two claims to safeguard your employment and discrimination rights. One is an adverse action claim, and the other is a sexual harassment claim. Even though you have only worked for a short period of 4 months, that is 1 factor in the mix but the material matters are that you exercised your workplace rights and you were subjected to vulgar sexual comments and behavior. These matters will have to be joined concurrently through the Federal Circuit Court process. Yes, it will take 6-9 months to find a sensible solution but it is essential that you be proactive and defend your workplace rights.

Believability is a matter Connect Legal regularly is confronted with in client interviews, at the Human Rights Commission, and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, and as we always advocate " patience is needed for the truth to ultimately come out and obtain what are both non-financial and financial outcomes". The deeper the legal process does enter, the more face-to-face conferences, we are provided deeper insights into the individual's alleged actions. Rest assured Connect Legal has obtained its clients very sensible results, but what is clear from the many sexual harassment surveys, you need to defend your discrimination rights and work with a very experienced and knowledgeable legal team who can assist on a no-win no fee basis. Connect Legal and its team were the pioneers of no-win no fee arrangements in the employment litigation realm and for over two decades have quietly and forcefully defended their clients' employment and discrimination workplace rights.

We would highly recommend you place your concerns in writing, highlighting examples and asking him to stop. If he persists, please then only in writing inform human resources or senior management to undertake an investigation. If you see no material outcome from this process our office and legal team are only a call away at 02-9889 2239 and we can come and even visit you close to home, whether in Sydney, regional NSW and or Australia-wide.

Indeed, it is much more beneficial that an individual who has experienced sexual harassment does raise allegations in writing to the business’ Human Resources department and more importantly senior management. Our experience through the Australian Human Rights Commission and the Federal Circuit Court is that employers regularly say “she never made the complaint, so it never occurred” or “she made the complaints after her termination through her lawyers” or “because she never complained she has no credibility and the alleged acts have not occurred.” The Sex Discrimination Act does not specify that for a successful prosecution of a sexual harassment claim that an aggrieved individual has to make a written or verbal complaint to management and/or HR. In the numerous calls that we receive, individuals on the majority of occasions have not raised the issues of sexual harassment either verbally and/or in writing, but this has never precluded our firm from procuring very successful nonfinancial and financial resolutions through the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Federal Circuit Court and/or the Federal Court.

The Sex Discrimination Act has safeguarded the rights of individuals since 1984 and you have experienced sexual harassment at work. sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct and there is no dispute what you experienced at the work conference was conduct of a sexual nature and clearly, it was unwelcome. You explained strongly to your manager to cease the behavior but regrettably, he continued with his behavior. Hopefully, your work colleagues who were at the dinner and those who came to the room will stand up and talk the truth but considering he is a senior manager there is always the fear of not talking because they could lose their job. Connect Legal and its team of solicitors finds this very troubling because sexual harassment has to be stamped out at the worksite immediately and there is a saying that silence in itself is a very serious crime. We are unsure if your work colleagues will give you written statements, but what is important is that you safeguard your discrimination rights and this is where Connect Legal decades of experience in helping individuals who have suffered sexual harassment can help. We not only offer our service in Sydney but also extensively in NSW and country-wide and all the work will be undertaken on a no-win no fee basis.

The Sex Discrimination Act has safeguarded the rights of individuals since 1984 and you have experienced sexual harassment at work. sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct and there is no dispute what you experienced at the work conference was conduct of a sexual nature and clearly, it was unwelcome. You explained strongly to your manager to cease the behavior but regrettably, he continued with his behavior. Hopefully, your work colleagues who were at the dinner and those who came to the room will stand up and talk the truth but considering he is a senior manager there is always the fear of not talking because they could lose their job. Connect Legal and its team of solicitors finds this very troubling because sexual harassment has to be stamped out at the worksite immediately and there is a saying that silence in itself is a very serious crime. We are unsure if your work colleagues will give you written statements, but what is important is that you safeguard your discrimination rights and this is where Connect Legal decades of experience in helping individuals who have suffered sexual harassment can help. We not only offer our service in Sydney but also extensively in NSW and country-wide and all the work will be undertaken on a no-win no fee basis.

It is abhorrent that you are facing this unwelcome conduct from a supervisor who is senior to you. It is important that you make your employer aware of your supervisor’s inappropriate conduct, explain to them in writing that the conduct has caused you stress and anxiety, and provide them with medical certificates whilst on stress leave. It is difficult to predict how your employer may react to you informing them of these very serious sexual harassment issues and there may be an internal investigation process to determine whether your allegations are substantiated in our extensive experience over the years, HR is often unable to substantiate claims and takes little action to support the individual being harassed. As you are a contractor, your employer may simply say there is no more work for you. However, this is not right because as a contractor, you still have rights under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. Connect Legal can assist you by undertaking extensive interviews regarding sexual harassment and lodging a claim at the Australian Human Rights Commission. You may also have a sham contracting claim and we can also assist you in this matter by lodging concurrent claims, one for sham contracting with the Fair Work Commission and another for sexual harassment claim at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Over the years, Connect Legal has assisted countless individuals Australia-wide and across various industries who have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. It is inappropriate for your manager to make these sexual comments regarding his personal life and he should not be making these sexual comments, especially after you have explained to him that the comments make you feel uncomfortable. Connect Legal can assist you by conducting extensive interviews regarding the sexual harassment you experienced and thereafter lodging a sexual harassment claim at the Australian Human Rights Commission. All our work is undertaken on a no-win no fee basis and we are here to listen and safeguard your discrimination rights. By lodging a claim, your employer and manager may realize that their conduct was discriminatory and unlawful, and hopefully, they will implement policies in the workplace to prevent this conduct in the future.

Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual conduct and there is a great myth that it only occurs between two colleagues when a colleague makes sexually suggestive comments and or touches a fellow colleague. On the contrary, sexual harassment is much broader than that, and will provide your two examples. One example is when your team members and or senior managers make sexually suggestive and obscene comments about other employees and their physical looks. Another example is when we’re out and about, at work conferences and or lunches your colleagues and your senior managers make once again sexually suggestive comments or observations about general members of the public. These are all instances of sexual misconduct and this behavior has to stop immediately. I know it’s difficult, but you have to take a stance and explain to each colleague maybe on a one-on-one basis, that these comments are inappropriate and that they should cease immediately. If the behavior still continues I would strongly recommend that you contact the managing director and or human resources and make a written complaint. Connect Legal and its team of solicitors are always available to provide phone support and legal advice if needed.

Yes, it does, training and learning and development processes play a fundamental step in eradicating all forms of discrimination in the workplace. If each employee is aware of what workplace bullying and discrimination are and provided very acute examples, they know the consequences could have on their employment then this significantly eradicates this type of behavior. Your company must be congratulated on its training processes, and if ever a sexual harassment case arises, it would have a very strong defense for vicarious liability under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, meaning it could argue very strongly that they weren’t liable for the actions of the employees.

Yes, this is sexual harassment because it’s unwelcome sexual conduct The behavior and discussions are of a sexual nature, you were not the initiator of them and you have found them very unwelcome. Once again there is a myth within society that sexual harassment is only when one employee makes comments to another employee about their appearance, and physical attributes and or touches them, etc. Sexual harassment is very broad and the courts have taken a similar view. However, the dilemma has been that very few cases of this nature ever make it to the surface and into the court systems. We strongly recommend that you inform the individual what you’re doing is not appropriate. If he persists again also talk to the workshop supervisor and or owner. If legal help and advice are needed, please contact our office, our phone lines are open seven days a week and you can chat with our team of experienced solicitors, who have a wealth of knowledge within this area and will give you very timely advice.

Our advice is straightforward, please prepare a detailed statement regarding the discrimination and sexual harassment allegations and [provide a copy to human resources. Yes, we have heard regularly that human resources are mainly two the company line (which is not surprising) and are never helpful. If you feel this way, please contact our office and speak to our team of solicitors and see how we may assist on a no-win no fee basis.

We understand your predicament, and in the significant number of racism matters we’ve assisted with, we’ve always come across this dilemma that fellow colleagues aren’t prepared to give you a written statement. However, this should not compromise your position in lodging a racial discrimination claim and our experiences have shown that if we can prepare a comprehensive statement and ensure the facts are correct, in the medium-long run, your racism claim will all into place and your manager and employer will understand the hurt it has caused you. Finally, it’s all about storytelling, please ring our team for a discussion.

The 2018 National survey provided a very clear picture of the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in Australian workplaces. It found workplace sexual harassment was a common problem and at least 33% of individuals indicated they had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace in the last five years. Almost two in five females (39%) and one in four males (26%) had experienced workplace sexual harassment.

The 2020 National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian workplaces stated on page 134, " sexual harassment occurred in a broad range of workplaces, such as courtrooms, classrooms, kitchens, restaurants, construction sites, mines, hospitals, healthcare settings, retail establishments, farms, racing studs, workshops, warehouses" and hence sexual harassment is not restricted to a specific industry and or workplace. If you experience sexual harassment and or believe your workplace colleagues' conduct is unwelcomed and of a sexual nature, please contact Connect Legal for a phone discussion to confidentiality and explain your situation. After various phone discussions and if you require legal help, we will organize an interview at our Ryde office and or venture out towards where you work and or live.

Aggravated damages are awarded where the perpetrator’s conduct is especially vicious or heinous and aggravated in some form. For example, the conduct may be repetitive and continue unabated even where the victim has requested that the conduct cease. Exemplary or punitive damages are often confused with aggravated damages. The difference is that exemplary damages are generally ordered to punish the wrong-doer and to deter the conduct in the future. Exemplary damages are not compensatory in nature and are only imposed in very limited circumstances.

The court can award damages for your economic loss, as long as you can establish a causal link between the unlawful sexual harassment and the economic loss that is alleged to flow from the conduct. For example, if you resign from your employment and are subsequently unemployed because of sexual harassment or your employer’s inability to investigate the conduct, you can seek to be paid an economic loss for the period of unemployment or for example, any demotion in your employment position. Economic loss can be sought for both past economic loss and future economic loss, for example where you are unfit for work to provide a significant period because of the conduct. Finally, economic loss can also include any losses you incurred for medical, pharmaceutical, or other related expenses such as the cost of seeing a medical professional. General damages refer to any alleged loss or damage for hurt, humiliation, and any injury suffered because of the conduct. Usually, an Applicant or victim would file a Medico-Legal Report by either a psychologist or psychiatrist which would evidence of any loss and damage.

Connect Legal decades has diligently and quietly defended and safeguarded our client's employment and discrimination rights. The word " fight" conjures up images of undue stress and complexities and we wholeheartedly condemn the use of this word in legal literature. Connect Legal philosophy is about defending and safeguarding client rights, which required discipline, diligence, and extensive tea work. Yes, results make take more time, but the landmark judgments we have obtained within the owner-driver area, sham contracting, and disability discrimination were because of our unique philosophy. Please see our judgment page.

Our legal services will be undertaken on a No Win No Fee basis as has been the case from inception when we commenced defending employee rights in the late 90s. We will provide a written costs agreement outlining our No Win No Fee policy and will provide an estimate of the applicable fees.

Our legal services will be undertaken on a No Win No Fee basis as has been the case from inception when we commenced defending employee rights in the late 90s. We will provide a written costs agreement outlining our No Win No Fee policy and will provide an estimate of the applicable fees.