Creating connection
What is positive duty?
What is positive duty?
Key Takeaways:
Organisations and businesses in Australia now have a legal obligation to prevent sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and other unlawful behaviour from occurring in the workplace. This obligation is called positive duty.
The Sex Discrimination Act now includes positive duty, requiring organisations and businesses to take actions and initiatives to prevent sexual harassment and sexist behaviour from happening. This includes working relationships with customers and other individuals outside the organisation.
Sexual harassment is not just limited to inappropriate touching and contact. It can also be through suggestive jokes, inappropriate comments and questions, and sending explicit images.
These acts — whether done in the workplace, online (emails, collaborative software), or on someone's personal social media accounts — all count towards sexual harassment.
Instead of reacting to these events after it's occurred, positive duty looks into preventing these acts from happening.
Strong leadership, active involvement and open conversations are great starting points in creating a workplace that is safe and inclusive for all members of the organisation.
Source
Australian Human Rights Commission. (2024). What is the positive duty?. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2O-jYIbOzo
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