Equal opportunity legislation provides protection to all employees, whether they are full time, part time, casual or sub contractors against harassment in the workplace.
There are 2 types of harassment, namely- Racial harassment- including offensive or insulting comments or other behaviour about a person’s colour, ethnic background or origin.
Sexual harasment: is made up of two components. The first is the type of behaviour that is unlawful. The second is what will happen to the person if they refuse to go along with the unlawful behaviour.
There are three types of unlawful behaviour, which are-
An unwelcome sexual advance
A request for sexual favours
Unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature
Consequences if behaviour is objected to
The behaviour is such that the harassed person has reasonable grounds to believe that if they reject the advance, refuse the request or object to the conduct then they will be disadvantaged, or they are in fact disadvantaged. Disadvantaged can include losing their job, not being promoted, not receiving special staff benefits such as a bonus, and unfavourable reports about their work performance. Usually this means that the person who is the harasser is in a position of authority to the person being harassed.
Harassment can be over a period of time but one incident is enough. The harassment must be directed towards the person making the complaint.
NOTE: it may be the case that a colleagues’ behaviour is sexually offensive but does not meet the definition of sexual harassment under the Act. In this situation an organisation may have as part of their Code of Conduct other behaviour of a sexual nature that is not appropriate. In this situation the person may be subject to internal action by their employer but not to legal action under the EOA.
Harassment
