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Employers now have a legal obligation to take proactive steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination.
This is known as the ‘positive duty’, and will be enforced by the Australian Human Rights Commission. The positive duty places an obligation on organisations to demonstrate how they are preventing harm.
Sexual harassment can have devastating impacts. It can cause physical and psychological harm, and presents significant barriers, especially to women’s workforce participation.
Considering what a safe workplace culture looks like for different groups of individuals (particularly those that are disproportionately subjected to workplace sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination) is critical to addressing the complex drivers of these behaviours and supporting workforce participation.
PwC’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion specialists can offer independent support in building safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces.
3:42
The positive duty - your questions answered
PwC's Tara Sarathy walks you through some common questions from clients on the amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act and the additional obligations on employers to create safe, respectful and inclusive work environments.
Compliance will be assessed against a new framework of seven key standards.
Together, these standards encompass the fundamental requirements of a safe work environment.
- Leadership
- Culture
- Knowledge
- Risk management
- Support
- Reporting & response
- Monitoring, evaluation & transparency
How we can help
We specialise in helping organisations build safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces. We bring an independent, experienced perspective to identify strengths and gaps, and design interventions tailored to your organisation’s unique context.
We have worked with iconic organisations and institutions to prevent and address inappropriate workplace behaviours. These include employers with complex risk factors, including in the Resources, Education, Financial Services, Retail and Police, Fire and Emergency Services industries.
1. Risk assessment
1. Risk assessment
- We can conduct a thorough assessment of the risk of sexual harassment in your organisation, which is the starting point to building a safer workplace.
- After identifying the unique risks of your work environment, we can help design tailored actions that will enhance your workplace safety and inclusivity.
- We can also review your organisation’s approach to other inappropriate workplace behaviours such as bullying and discrimination, so interventions are holistic, sustainable and fit for purpose.
2. Prevention and Response Plan development
2. Prevention and Response Plan development
- The Australian Human Rights Commission requires organisations to have a tailored Prevention and Response Plan, and for senior leaders to actively oversee the development and implementation of this plan.
- We can work with you to identify the most effective actions your business can take to prevent and respond to workplace sexual harassment in light of specific industry and organisational risks and your organisational culture.
- We provide communications expertise to share the Prevention and Response Plan and implementation progress with your people, as well as with external stakeholders as required to build transparency.
3. Senior leader and manager capability building
3. Senior leader and manager capability building
- Senior leaders set the tone in any workplace: culture comes from the top. The positive duty and other compliance obligations place significant expectations on leaders to drive change and promote a safe work environment.
- Our leadership interventions and coaching go beyond a ‘tick and flick’ exercise and support leaders at all levels to:
- be equipped with the skills and confidence to create a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace culture that will adapt to further progress in this area; and
- meet rapidly evolving compliance obligations relating to employee welfare.
4. Independent workforce consultation
4. Independent workforce consultation
- Consulting with your workforce will allow you to better understand their lived experience - leading to a stronger understanding of your organisation’s strengths, challenges and risks.
- Organisations are seeing great value in periodically investing in independent consultation to surface underlying issues and risks, and continually improve their own reporting systems and processes.
- Our consultation approach is person-centred and trauma-informed, recognising the sensitivity and nuance of workplace sexual harassment.
5. Gender pay gap and workplace gender equality
5. Gender pay gap and workplace gender equality
- We know that workplaces with increased gender equality are at decreased risk of inappropriate workplace behaviour. We take a holistic approach which considers new compliance obligations on gender equity (including gender pay gap reporting) and broader workplace reforms, including workplace relations and work health and safety.
- It is important to recognise that pay equity is not just about a number - organisations need to understand and consider all factors that contribute to gender equality in the workplace to bridge their gender pay gap.
- We work with organisations to define strategies that identify and address these underlying factors.
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Contact us
Elizabeth Shaw
Partner, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consulting, PwC Australia
Tel: +61 402 853 852
