Understanding workplace sexual harassment: Trends, barriers to legal assistance, consequences, and legal need

Circle Green Community Legal (Circle Green) is the lead agency delivering the Workplace Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Legal Services Project (referred to as “the Workplace Respect Project”) in Western Australia.

In 2022, Circle Green’s Workplace Respect Project partnered with the Centre for Social Impact (University of Western Australia) to undertake research to help identify legal need priorities related to workplace sexual harassment and discrimination in Australia.

In June 2023, the Centre for Social Impact finalised and delivered their report: Understanding workplace sexual harassment: Trends, barriers to legal assistance, consequences, and legal need.

This report draws on existing literature on workplace sexual harassment, as well as interviews conducted with community legal centres and other stakeholder organisations, and people with lived experience of workplace sexual harassment, to identify and understand its prevalence, nature, and occurrence in WA. In doing so, the Centre for Social Impact has worked to build a solid evidence base for identifying legal need and offers useful insights for legal assistance services and other organisations to be more responsive to people who have been targeted by workplace sexual harassment.

Understanding workplace sexual harassment: Trends, barriers to legal assistance, consequences, and legal need includes findings across a broad range of topics, including WA workplace sexual harassment legislation, reporting workplace sexual harassment, employer responses to workplace sexual harassment, and barriers to seeking legal assistance. The report concludes with a series of key recommendations for legal assistance service providers, workplaces and employees, and systems and legal reform.

Interested in reading our report summary? Click here to download it.