Hundreds of government workers have experienced sexual misconduct
A new report has detailed the disturbing cases of sexual harassment in the Victorian public sector, with more than 1400 employees experiencing some form of harassment in the past 12 months.
VIC News
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Explicit text messages, comments about porn movies and serious criminal conduct not reported to police are among the shocking cases of sexual harassment in the Victorian public sector.
A Victorian Auditor General’s Report tabled in state parliament today, has revealed more than 1400 employees have experienced some form of sexual harassment when working at their government job in the past 12 months.
However, the true number may not be known with many complaints going unreported or departments having no set processes in how to respond or record complaints.
Alarmingly, some cases amounted to criminal behaviour, but were never investigated and in two instances criminal behaviour was not reported to Victoria Police.
The most common form of harassment included intrusive questions, comments and sexist jokes.
However, alarmingly some cases were serious and including allegations of criminal behaviour.
Among the cases reported are:
• A person witnessing a manager saying that the only good place for a female is in a porn movie.
• A man pressed his penis against an employee when they were bending over and saying
“is that your preferred position”.
• Unwanted sexual text messages late at night.
• Others reported being tickled and touched inappropriately.
• Five people were sent explicit materials.
• 34 people reported continuous unwanted advances from colleagues.
• 195 complaints related to unwanted physical contact.
• A further 196 reported unwanted kissing hugging and being cornered physically.
• 21 cases included alleged criminal conduct.
People also reported a sexual harassment complaint was referred to as a CLM a “career limiting move” and were told “boys will be boys” when they raised issues.
Alarmingly in some victims reported their perpetrators were allowed to resign rather then face investigation, while others were moved to a new departments.
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As a result of the damning find the auditor general has made 12 recommendations including creating formal complaint processes and improving data collection, defining how to report matters to Victoria Police and introduce mandatory training on how to identify, report and handle allegations.
Those most at risk were young women aged 15 to 24 years old. those that earned less than 475,000 LGBTIQ staff and people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background.