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Harassment

Yesterday

Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint. Baldoni’s lawyer said the claims were false.

Blake Lively turns the shame around

The actress is suing a Hollywood studio alleging sexual harassment and a smear campaign. It may prolong the pain but the only way to end impunity is to speak up.

  • Nicholas Kristof

This Month

Rio published a report last month that found bullying and harassment were still common.

Sexual harassment class action to target BHP, Rio

The big miners’ efforts to attract more female employees have suffered a setback with the launch of sexual harassment class actions.

  • Peter Ker
Airlie Walsh at a David Jones event in 2019. She was a well-known personality on the Nine Network.

Nine’s Airlie Walsh sues network amid workplace culture fallout

The well-known television personality had worked on the Today breakfast program and as a political reporter for more than a decade.

  • Max Mason and Sam Buckingham-Jones

November

President-elect Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket.

Elon Musk slams Albanese’s social media ban

The owner of X had a swing at the Australian government’s prohibition for children under 16 as he prepares to take a role in the Trump administration.

  • Matthew Cranston
Michelle Rowland says social platforms will have a “digital duty of care”.

Government to pursue tech giants for social harm

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says Canberra will introduce a “digital duty of care” that could punish platforms for causing systemic trauma.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones
Advertisement
Former sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins.

Lack of action on workplace harassment holds back productivity

Readers’ letters on the impact of anonymous harassment reports; the need for flexibility in the super system; fee-free university; Trump’s inflation danger; working-class voters; and climate obligations.

Putting mobile phones “away for the day” will encourage face-to-face social interactions, Grace Grace said.

Social media ban doesn’t trust parents to raise their kids

If Canberra truly wanted to support families, it would invest in digital literacy rather than wielding a sledgehammer.

  • Constantine Frantzeskos
WGA chief executive Mary Wooldridge said company boards had a big role to play in stamping out harassment.

Lack of anonymous reporting channels fuels harassment underreporting

Victims of work-related sexual harassment do not have the option of reporting incidents anonymously at more than three in 10 large companies, research shows.

  • Euan Black
Crispin Odey, the founder of OAM.

UK watchdog plans action against Crispin Odey over sexual misconduct

Hedge fund boss Crispin Odey was the subject of a series of assault claims in 2023 that plunged the firm he founded into turmoil.

  • Leonard Kehnscherper

October

Shane Britten, founder of SocialProtect, in Canberra this week.

First, kidnapping the Wallabies; now tackling online bullying

The debate about stopping cyberbullying has so far centred around bans and age limits. This former spy has a different solution.

  • Jemima Whyte
The sacking followed new laws in Western Australia on psychosocial hazards at work.

Sacking for offensive comments was wrong, tribunal rules

A mining worker fired for repeatedly taunting a colleague was judged to be unfairly dismissed as he was not properly trained in psychosocial safety policies.

  • David Marin-Guzman
The female worker allegedly rubbed her buttocks on a co-worker at the Qantas Lounge.

‘No excuse’: Drunk worker fired for Qantas Lounge sex harassment

The fly-in fly-out worker had her unfair dismissal claim rejected, including that placing her head in a co-worker’s lap was “the usual inconvenience of public travel”.

  • David Marin-Guzman

September

Bosses are changing the way they communicate with staff because a significant proportion of workers don’t read email.

You can now control your teenager’s Instagram use

Users aged under 16 will soon find themselves in restricted “Teen Accounts”, giving guardians authority over the content they see on the social media app.

  • Sam Buckingham-Jones
Billions of people are signed up for Facebook, but how many still need it?

Social media bosses face jail if they fail to stop revenge porn

Britain is introducing tough new online safety laws that could see social media bosses punished for allowing deep fakes and revenge porn to be shared.

  • Charles Hymas

August

 The breakthrough came via a Wall Street Journal article last week which revealed that  The New York Times journalist, Natasha Frost was the person who first leaked  the chat.

Why haven’t the police investigated the doxxing of Jewish creatives?

We now know who leaked the names and comments in the WhatsApp group. But what about holding accountable those who used carriage services to menace and harass?

  • Stuart Cohen
Advertisement
Recent analysis found that 65 per cent of the clean energy workforce are men.

Energy transition needs more women, says Jobs and Skills head

Getting more women to become electricians and mechanics would help accelerate the transition to net zero, Australia’s top skills adviser says.

  • Euan Black
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has announced consultation on laws that would restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements for workplace sexual harassment.

States back crackdown on non-disclosure agreements

But business says workplace sexual harassment should be dealt with by the federal government, while employment lawyers warn against a blanket bank on NDAs.

  • Gus McCubbing
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan revealed

Allan moves to end NDA ‘misuse to silence victims’

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has announced consultation on laws that would restrict the use of non-disclosure agreements for workplace sexual harassment.

  • Gus McCubbing

July

Companies may not be as prepared as they think they are for sexual harassment complaints.

Companies not as prepared against harassment as they think they are

Companies may think their workplace harassment policies are fit for purpose, but a survey shows many need to change to comply with new obligations.

  • Staff reporter

June

X had to shut down searches for “Taylor Swift” in January because the site was flooded with so many faked porn images of the singer.

Tough jail terms for deepfake porn peddlers under new laws

The creators and sharers of non-consensual sexually explicit material will face up to seven years’ jail under the new rules, which also put pressure on tech firms.

  • Paul Smith

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/harassment-5y4