Introducing positive duties to eliminate sexual harassment in the workplace

Australia's federal anti-discrimination laws currently hold employers vicariously liable for unlawful acts of discrimination and harassment by their employees, unless the employer can show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the act occurring.

It is generally accepted that the defence by employers that they took reasonable steps to prevent the conduct from occurring is established as long as they had implemented training and policies regarding discrimination and harassment, and took action when a complaint of discrimination or harassment was made.

However, there has now been a recent shift towards imposing a positive duty on employers to actively eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, by creating an environment where it is unlikely to happen in the first place.