1. WORKPLACE HARASSMENT &
SEXUAL HARASSMENT

2. WHAT IS WORKPLACE
HARASSMENT????

3. DEFINITION
Workplace harassment is where a person is
subjected to behavior, other than sexual
harassment, that
 is repeated, unwelcome and unsolicited
 the person considers to be offensive,
intimidating, humiliating or threatening
 a reasonable person would consider to be
offensive, humiliating, intimidating or
threatening.

4. Workplace harassment can be committed by:
 an employer
 worker
 co-worker
 group of co-workers
 client or customer or
 a member of the public.

5. What is not workplace harassment?
 A single incident of harassing type behavior
 Reasonable management action taken in a
reasonable way
 Acts of unlawful discrimination or sexual
harassment.

6. signs of workplace harassment may include:
 changes in human resource management trends, for example:
 increases in levels of absenteeism and staff turnover
 increases in the use of employee counseling services
 workers leaving the organization reporting dissatisfaction with working
relationships
 negative results from organizational climate/worker opinion surveys
 the breakdown of relationships between workers, customers or management
 workers becoming withdrawn and isolated
 poor worker morale and erosion of loyalty and commitment

7. How to prevent workplace harassment
 Workplace harassment prevention policy
 Complaint handling system
 Human resource system
 Training & education

8. Workplace harassment prevention policy
Employers should ensure a workplace harassment prevention
policy is developed and implemented in the workplace. The
policy should outline the workplace’s commitment to address
harassment and expectations regarding appropriate workplace
behavior.
The policy may be a stand-alone policy or form part of an
existing health and safety policy, or code of conduct for all
workers.
Typically, a workplace harassment policy should be readily available
within the workplace, for example from the human resources or
administration areas

9. The workplace harassment prevention policy
should be:
 easy to understand
 provided in languages other than English, if needed
 displayed where all workers can read it
 be consistent with the workplace’s other health and safety policies and
objectives
 relevant to the workplace, its needs, people and conditions
 developed in consultation with workers
 supported by employer, manager or chief executive
 followed, and consistently and fairly applied

10. Complaint handling system
 A complaint handling system should include procedures for
reporting, investigating, resolving and appealing workplace
harassment complaints.
 The system should be fair, impartial, and be developed in
consultation with workers, managers, supervisors and the
workplace health and safety committee (where there is one).
 The system should provide procedures for managing both
informal and formal complaints.
 For informal complaints this might be encouraging complaints
to be raised with the appropriate contact person in the
workplace, identified in the workplace harassment prevention
policy.
 Interpersonal conflicts are often effectively resolved through
open discussion between the parties. This should be
encouraged as the first step in every complaint, unless
otherwise requested by the person making the complaint.

11. Human resource systems
Effective human resource systems, including effective
and reasonable performance management
processes, can help prevent or control workplace
harassment.

12. Performance management processes
Performance management processes can:
 provide timely and accurate feedback about job performance in a
reasonable way
 identify a person’s strengths, and training and development needs for
current and future positions
 set mutually agreed goals and competencies
They can also be used to identify and address behaviors or managerial styles
that may contribute to workplace harassment.
By having these systems in place workplace harassment can be prevented as
performance is monitored and managed, enabling issues to be identified
and resolved.

13. Training and education
 Training and educating workers on issues of workplace harassment can help prevent or
control exposure to workplace harassment as:
 workers including supervisors, managers, workplace health and safety officers (WHSOs),
workplace health and safety representatives (WHSRs) and workplace health and safety
committees become more aware of their roles and responsibilities
 offenders will become more conscious of their behavior, how it may be perceived and the
possible consequences of their actions. This may deter workplace harassing behaviors
 workers will have a more accurate knowledge of what does and does not constitute
workplace harassment
 workers will become aware of the consequences of making malicious, frivolous or vexatious
workplace harassment complaints
 it can promote cultural change and a healthy and safe workplace
 people who work at the workplace are informed and encouraged to take action against
harassing behaviors

14. What Is sexual harassment??????

15. DEFINITION
Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual
advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal,
visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature made
by one person to another.

16. Two Kinds of Sexual Harassment

17. Quid pro quo occurs when a Hostile environment
person in authority such as harassment consists of
a manager, supervisor or unwelcome sexual
faculty member makes an misconduct that
unwelcome sexual advance
substantially interferes with
or request for a sexual favor
work or academic
to an employee or student
performance or creates a
and submission to or
rejection of the advance is a
hostile working or learning
condition of employment or environment.
academic standing.

18. Forms of Sexual Harassment
Physical
Verbal
Visual

19. Physical Form
 Touching
 unwanted massages
 patting, caressing, or fondling
 impeding or blocking movement
 standing closer than appropriate or necessary
for the work being done, touching or rubbing
oneself sexually around or in view of another
person, or assault.

20. Verbal Form
 targeting a person with sexual comments, slurs, jokes, or rumors
 verbal sexual advances, threats or propositions
 verbal abuse of a sexual nature
 making sexual comments about a person's clothing, body, or looks
 sexually degrading words used to describe an individual
 suggestive or obscene letters, notes, or invitations
 turning work or academic discussions into sexual discussions
 asking about sexual fantasies, preferences, or history
 asking personal questions about social or sexual life
 Insults

21. Visual Form
 leering (looking at someone in sexually
suggestive manner)
 making suggestive gestures
 displaying pornography, sexually
suggestive pictures, cartoons, posters or
literature
 having sexually suggestive software on a
work or academic computer
 Suggestive or insulting sounds

22. When Reporting Sexual Harassment
Reports can be oral or in writing. The report must
include several things:
(1) name of the alleged harasser
(2) detailed description of harassing acts
(3) names of any possible witnesses
(4) time period of harassing acts
(5) whether any tangible job action has occurred (demotion,
termination, missed promotion, undesirable job assignment).
***The complainant will not be required to confront the alleged harasser
as part of the reporting or investigatory process.