“Just because you are not hearing about it in business is not because it is not happening,” Broderick says.
Broderick says women are deterred from speaking out by perpetrators who act to protect their own reputations.
“When you speak out against something you draw a lot of attention and scrutiny to yourself and the story moves from the conduct to the individual bringing the complaint,” she says.
Broderick says sexual harassment damages business and the report found sexual harassment happened across all business; small, medium and large.
She recommends SMEs ensure people in the organisation have access to information as to what to do if sexual harassment occurs.
“As the leader of the organisation you need to set the tone that sexual harassment has no place in the culture of the small to medium enterprise that you are running,” she says.
“The role of the leader is very important particularly in a small organisation.”
Nareen Young, chief executive of the Diversity Council Australia, attended the launch of the report this morning and told SmartCompany victimisation and a fear of speaking out had increased in Australia.
“There has been a developing culture about ‘I can say what I like’ that has developed on social media and all this ridiculous talk about what free speech may be; all of this encouraged appalling behaviours in workplaces,” she says.
Young says it is important to remember that when you are in the workplace you have responsibilities and obligations.
She says the Human Rights Commission report follows from Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s speech on misogyny in parliament.
“We think [the report] is timely and part of a bigger conversation about sexism at work in Australia and in the broader community right now,” she says.
Young says there is an opportunity for SMEs to address sexual harassment in the workplace as smaller workplaces are often the place where goodwill is displayed.
“SMEs have to realise their legal obligations as businesses, they have to understand it is their job to create workplaces that are free of sexual discrimination,” she says.
