Major airlines reject claim industry doesn’t take sexual harassment seriously

Australia’s major airline groups have rejected claims they don’t take sexual harassment of staff seriously.

A survey by the Transport Workers Union found three out of five crew-members had endured unwelcome advances from passengers.

Australia’s major airline groups have rejected claims they don’t take sexual harassment of staff seriously, following a union survey showing 65 per cent of cabin crew have experienced inappropriate behaviour.

The Transport Workers Union survey of more than 400 crew, found four out of five had been sexually harassed by co-workers and three out of five had endured unwelcome approaches from passengers.

The sorts of harassment experienced ranged from sexual assault, genital exposure by passengers, inappropriate touching and highly sexualised and degrading comments.

Close to 70 per cent of those surveyed said they did not report the incident because they did not think it would be handled appropriately, while some felt they feared reporting could make the situation worse.

Of those who did report sexual harassment, 84 per cent were not satisfied with how it was handled.

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said the results showed airlines were not taking the problem seriously.

“It is clear that a culture exists at airlines to at best ignore the problem and at worst protect the perpetrators,” Mr Kaine said.

“Today we are lifting the lid on this widespread problem and demanding a change to the way sexual harassment of cabin crew is dealt with.”

Both the Qantas and Virgin Australia Groups said they took a “zero tolerance approach” to sexual harassment and the safety of staff was their number one priority.

The Australian understands 12 people have been dismissed from Qantas in the last 12 months for workplace harassment offences.

A Qantas spokesman said they had clear processes in place for reporting and investigating workplace harassment claims, including whistleblower reporting that came with additional protections.

“These process have helped reveal behaviour that is simply not acceptable and we’ve taken action that has included terminating people’s employment,” he said.

“We’re starting a new program later this year that will ask crew what more we can do to deal with harassment and create a more inclusive culture.”

A Virgin Australia spokeswoman said they were concerned by the results of the survey.

“We expect our team members to uphold the Virgin Australia Group values, behaviours and Code of Conduct,” said the spokeswoman.

“Each Virgin Australia team member is required to participate in regular mandatory training of the group equal employment opportunity policy which covers sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying.”

Passengers who sexually harassed cabin crew members in flight, faced being met with Australian Federal Police agents on landing, and could be placed on the airlines’ “no fly” list.