AREEA’s submission to the Western Australian Inquiry into sexual harassment against women in the FIFO mining industry has described how workplace sexual harassment is abhorrent and will not be tolerated at any level in the resources and energy sector.

AREEA noted despite proactive policies, procedures, measures and initiatives in place to tackle sexual harassment, including in fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) environments, more needs to be done.

“Despite a zero tolerance approach the resources and energy sector still has a higher-then-average prevalence of sexual harassment in its workplaces. The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has found 40% of women have experienced sexual harassment in the resources sector compared to 33% across all industries,” Steve Knott AM, Chief Executive of AREEA, said.

“As a critical workplace health and safety matter, this issue is taken with the highest level of seriousness by industry leaders.  A range of preventative measures have been implemented by employers to mitigate the risk of sexual harassment occurring in their workplaces.

“Measures include ‘Inclusive Safety Audits’ undertaken by independent experts, examining workplace facilities, policies, practices, rosters and other working conditions to ensure all employees feel safe and supported at all times.

“Employers are also undertaking significant training to educate and raise awareness of sexual harassment amongst executive leaders, managers, supervisors and all other employees.

“Training includes AREEA’s Appropriate Workplace Behaviours course which focuses on best practice policies and procedures, and Active Bystander Training which provides skills for bystanders to intervene when they see behaviour that is not acceptable.”

AREEA notes with concern that some union bosses are attempting to portray sexual harassment as being widespread and generally accepted by managers and leaders in the industry. Mr Knott said this was “patently absurd”, and industry programs and actions show quite the opposite.

“The industry is awash with outstanding leaders; many who have taken a personal stand on this issue for decades and would find it highly offensive to be accused of covering up workplace sexual harassment,” he said.

“This rhetoric, which is not based on fact or supported by independently gathered data, is not helpful to the common goal of working together to build a culture where sexual harassment cannot exist.”

Data collected annually by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) for organisations with more than 100 employees shows:

• 100% of reporting resources and energy sector organisations have a formal policy or formal strategy on sex-based harassment and discrimination prevention;
• 9% of reporting resources and energy sector organisations include a grievance process in any sex-based harassment and discrimination prevention policy or strategy; and
• 7% of reporting organisations in the resources and energy sector provide training for all managers on sex-based harassment and discrimination prevention.

“In each of WGEA’s reporting categories, the resources and energy sector is in fact leading the all-industries average,” Mr Knott said.

“Further, the AHRC has found that employees in the resources and energy sector are more likely to make a formal complaint or report about an incident of sexual harassment in the workplace – 24% compared with 17% across all industries. This shows that amongst other things, awareness and procedural training is having a positive effect.

“That said, resources employers and business in general are on a journey that has a long way to go. This Inquiry will expose terrible and confronting examples of workplace sexual harassment that should never have occurred and serve as an ongoing reminder that no stone should be left unturned to stamp it out.

“In doing so the industry will build upon the great amount of work already being done in the industry as we continue on the journey of stamping out this scourge which has been a blight in too many workplaces for far too long.”

Support for resources and energy employers

Further to AREEA’s submission, the Group has publicly acknowledged that ‘mining’ (including oil and gas) is referenced throughout the AHRC Respect@Work report as an industry with amongst the highest prevalence of workplace sexual harassment.

Specifically, the report highlights that male-dominated workplaces (most notably the construction and mining industries) have a higher risk of experiencing sexual harassment due to factors including the gender ratio, over-representation of men in senior leadership roles, the nature of the work being considered ‘non-traditional’ for women and masculine workplace cultures.

“In mining, the rate of sexual harassment overall was 40%, higher than the rate across all industries of 31%. Women were more than twice as likely as men to be sexually harassed (74% compared to 32%),” the report said.

AREEA’s longstanding position is the industry must work diligently to understand and address the specific drivers of sexual harassment in our workplaces.

Encouragingly, these are all areas in which the industry, led by the Australian Women in Resources Alliance (AWRA), an AREEA initiative, has been making significant improvements in recent years.

Specific initiatives delivered by AWRA / AREEA to assist members in addressing workplace sexual harassment include:

• Delivery of AREEA’s Appropriate Workplace Behaviours training to member company employees, with a strong focus on discrimination, sexual harassment and inclusive workplace culture;
• Reviewing members’ workplace policies and procedures to ensure best practice in regards to bullying and harassment, psychological safety and disciplinary action;
• Undertaking the AWRA Inclusive Safety Audit in member company workplaces to examine the actual and perceived physical and psychological safety of their employees. The audit covers physical safety, confidence, personal safety (including bullying and harassment) and psychological safety; and
• Development of policies, projects and campaigns to drive cultural change, education and awareness to drive more diverse, inclusive workplaces free from sexual harassment.

AREEA looks forward to continuing working with the Government and its members to implement further recommendations across education, accreditation and training to build skills and capacity on preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment.

To learn how AREEA can support your organisation in addressing workplace sexual harassment and related areas, contact [email protected].