‘Urgent national issue’: Shock levels of sexual harassment in retail sector exposed

New research has exposed the extent of sexual harassment in the retail industry, in what experts have called “an urgent national issue”.

Sexual harassment in the retail industry has become “an urgent national issue”, according to new research.

Up to half of women and one in four men working in the sector, which employs almost 10 per cent of all Australians, have been subjected to a variety of unwelcome behaviours in the past five years from peers, supervisors and customers, the report by researchers from the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion at Work found.

“What our new research highlights is the pervasive and systemic experience of sexual harassment in the retail industry,” the Centre’s Professor Elizabeth Hill, who co-authored the report, told news.com.au.

“The experience is so prevalent that retail workers talk about sexual harassment as just a normal part of working in the industry.”

It’s so normal, in fact, that workers described the unwelcome attention as “basically being part of the job”.

New research has exposed the extent of sexual harassment in the retail industry. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Monique Harmer

The most common form of harassment was sexually suggestive comments and jokes (62 per cent), followed by intrusive questions about a worker’s private life or physical appearance (45 per cent), and hard-to-confront behaviour like leering, staring or hovering (41 per cent).

While actual or attempted rape or sexual assault and sexually-explicit pictures and gifts were reported, these were less common (six and nine per cent, respectively).

In 86 per cent of sexual harassment cases in retail, the perpetrator was a man; young women were identified as the group at highest risk of being on the receiving end.

This is compounded, the Centre’s Director and report co-author Professor Rae Cooper explained, by the “gendered, hierarchical” nature of the retail industry.

“Men (are) more likely to be in positions of power and authority, and women (are more likely to be) in frontline, low-paid and insecure work,” Professor Cooper told news.com.au.

Industry norms around customers relations and service – such as the notion that “the customer is always right” – also “creates a poor workplace dynamic and discourages employees from reporting or taking other action”, she said. It can also enable “bad behaviour” from some customers.

Notions like ‘the customer is always right … create a poor workplace dynamic and discourages employees from reporting or taking other action’. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Many staff said they felt unsure about how to report sexual harassment, while those who did were left dissatisfied with the process – showing that current training and reporting policies and mechanisms “are not fit for purpose”, Professor Hill said.

“Many workers were unsure about their organisation’s reporting procedures and policies, didn’t know where to locate them, and often found them difficult to understand,” she said.

“Many had concerns about the confidentiality, integrity and effectiveness of the reporting process and said they lack trust in the reporting process due to a lack of timely action, the downplaying or dismissal of reports, and ineffective or opaque outcomes.”

Prof Cooper said employers have a legal duty to prevent harm to workers from sexual harassment – “regardless of the source”.

As of December last year, the Sex Discrimination Act ruled that all employers and persons conducting a business or undertaking are subject to a positive duty to take “reasonable and proportionate measures” to eliminate unlawful sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, as far as possible.

An industry-wide approach to customer harassment, she said, is needed “to keep this workforce safe”.

“We call on retail employers, retail industry associations and retail unions to come together to design unified and harmonised responses in reporting; data collection and precise and risk-informed training for key cohorts like very young workers and team leaders,” Prof Cooper said.

Australian Retailers Association CEO, Paul Zahra, said workplace sexual harassment in the sector is a ‘significant, ongoing concern’. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety CEO, Tessa Boyd-Caine, echoed the sentiment, describing enhanced reporting processes as “imperative to ensure victim-survivors feel safe and empowered to come forward”.

“Sexual harassment in retail is common, normalised, and harmful,” she said.

“This is part of the broader social environment that enables violence against women and children and as such, sexual harassment needs to be understood clearly and taken seriously.”

Australian Retailers Association CEO, Paul Zahra, said workplace sexual harassment is a “significant, ongoing concern” for the sector.

“We acknowledge the independent research teams for providing a safe space to have an

open dialogue. Now it’s up to the retail sector to take this report, build on it, and create an

environment where our staff don’t have to come to work in fear of sexual harassment and

violence,” he said.

“This report provides a strong foundation for ways we can better combat sexual harassment

in the workplace. This will include strategies informed by data, tailoring education for

employees, and upskilling and empowering supervisors and managers to respond to sexual

harassment in the workplace.”

Information about workplace sexual harassment and how to make a complaint is available on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.