A new study by the Australian Human Rights Commission has found that people working in the “media, information and telecommunications” industries were twice as likely to suffer sexual harassment in the workplace than the national average.
The study, which comes out every five years and involved interviews with some 10,000 Australians, found that 64 per cent of people employed in the category had experienced sexual harassment. On a possibly brighter note, the number was down from 80 per cent in 2018.
B&T has contacted Australian Human Rights Commission for more clarity around the term “media”.
Across all industries, the study found that 41 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men said the’d been sexually harassed in the last five years. In the 2018 survey, 39 per cent of women and 26 per cent of men were harassed.
Sexual harassment is defined as an “unwelcome sexual advance” or other unwelcome sexual conduct.
According to the study people employed in “arts and recreation” where the second biggest industry to report harassment at 44 per cent, while the construction industry was the best behaved, with only 10 per cent of workers saying they’d been subject to unwanted attention.
The research found that most harassers were men, with 77 per cent of people who’d experienced harassment saying it had come from a male colleague.
Commenting on the results, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said that it was younger workers who were most likely to be victims of workplace harassment.
“I’m especially worried about how little has changed for our new job entrants, almost half of workers under 30 have experienced sexual harassment in the last five years,” Jenkins said.
“So the survey figures are telling us that in these settings, frankly, things are still not good enough to support the needs of young workers.”
Check out the full results of the survey in the infographics below:
