Australian businesswomen want boards to treat sexual harassment the same as safety

Prominent Australian businesswomen are calling for boards to treat sexual harassment policies and incidents with the same gravitas as they do safety breaches, saying directors need to be more proactive in stamping out unacceptable behaviour.

It comes as a worrying report released on Thursday found fewer than one in five ASX200 companies said their boards had primary responsibility for preventing and responding to incidents of sexual harassment.

The report, undertaken by the Australian Human Rights Commission and led by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, pictured, was based on a survey of 118 ASX200 companies, and interviews with senior representatives from 16 firms.

It found that in most companies, senior executives — rather than boards — had accountability for prevention and response to sexual harassment.

Prominent WA company director Diane Smith-Gander said she was “startled” by the revelation just 19 per cent of Australia’s top companies reported the board had primary accountability for prevention and response to sexual harassment.

She said boards must take a disciplined and rigorous approach to preventing it in the workplace, adding: “Call it almost an overreaction”.

“There can never really be an overreaction but you have to amplify the topic,” Ms Smith-Gander, who is on boards including ZipCo and AGL Energy, said.

“I don’t think there’s any listed board in Australia that doesn’t understand it is accountable for a safe workplace.

“But it’s very clear that while companies are gathering data they need they’re not talking about it at every board meeting.”

The report, commissioned by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, found only 43 per cent of respondents indicated that sexual harassment was a regular board agenda item. Ms Jenkins said external events often served as a prompt for board discussion.

Libby Lyons — a non-executive director of Science in Australia Gender Equality, and former Workplace Gender Equality Agency director — said boards had a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of all employees.

“Just as they’re getting stats and data on a regular basis around safety incidents, so too should they be getting a regular report around the things happening in their organisation to do with gender equality ... and information around complaints,” she said.

The continuing issue of sexual harassment in mining specifically has been thrown into the spotlight in recent days after news of an alleged rape at a BHP mine site last year.