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Northern Territory News

Printers Place, Darwin

David Jones former chief executive Mark McInnes ... in a landmark sexual harassment battle

By FRAN METCALF

WHATEVER the outcome, the landmark sex-ual harassment case against retail giantDavid Jones and its former chief executiveMark McInnes shows just how far womenhave come in their fight for gender rightsand equality at work.

Or does it?At a recent dinner party, the case against

DJs, launched by one of its publicity officers,Kristy Fraser-Kirk, came up.

Some voiced disapproval at the amount ofcompensation being claimed by Fraser-Kirk(up to $37 million), and the talk turned tosexual harassment in general.

What does it involve? Who has seen orexperienced it? What would be fair compen-sation? What form did it take? How was itresolved?

I wasn't surprised when one of the womenat the table revealed she'd been sexuallyharassed by a senior male colleague earlierin her working life.

More than one in five females aged 18-64years have experienced sexual harassmentat work, according to Australian HumanRights Commission data.

Neither was I surprised she didn't reportthe matter.

Only 16 per cent of the women who expe-rience sexual harassment actually bring acomplaint.

What did shock me, however, was her lackof support to stamp it out.

"Women don't have to put up with it,'' she

said. "They can always leave their jobs if theydon't like it.''

True. But hasn't the past 20 years of lob-bying for laws and outing employers whoallow this scourge to exist been about elimi-nating it?

Clearly, more work needs to be donebefore women (let alone men) are genuinelyprepared to eradicate sexual harassmentfrom workplaces for good.

metcalff@qnp.newsltd.com.au

By KATE SOUTHAM

OVER the years I've received atonne of email about workplacesexual harassment and bully-ing.

I've been speaking to onereader for more than four yearsnow as she has tried to re-buildher life following legal andhealth battles due to a work-based claim.

While men can also be tar-gets, the Federal SexDiscrimination Commissionerreports 22 per cent of womenare sexually harassed at workand experts believe this is aconservative figure. Wow.

President of the AustralianHuman Resources InstitutePeter Wilson said: "Until theDavid Jones case, the underly-ing deeper-seated attitudesresponsible for many problems

facing women at work todayhad been cloaked over.''

Writing in HR Monthly, Wilsoncalled bullying, sexual harass-ment and the suppression ofwomen at work a "corporatecancer'' and names five reasonsemployers have failed to dealwith the issues. These include:* A predominant male workculture that fails to manage thesame mental health problemsthat Tiger Woods has con-fessed to.

* Older male business leadersgenuinely insecure in the pres-ence of women at work due totheir post-war upbringing —their fathers worked and theirmothers stayed home.* An elite male group that hasfelt entitled to the most power-ful jobs in business.* Women failing to support oneanother because they are com-peting for the "same morsels oftop jobs''.* Women tolerating sexualharassment out of fear of losing

their jobs, their workplace rep-utation and career futures.

Wilson said internal work-place policies are not enough —employers must create a sys-tem where an independentthird party investigates sexualharassment and bullying claims.

Those making claims mustalso be protected from recrimi-nations.

Most of all, the issue ofchanging the workplace culturemust be led from the very top.

I would add that workplacecultures that allow so-calledboys clubs' to flourish and thatsuppress the careers of talent-ed women also block the careerpaths of talented men whodon't fit the clique.

Blocking all that talent fromrising in the organisation is nota very sound business strategy.

Scourge needs to be eliminated

Until the David Jones case, the underlying deeper-seat-

ed attitudes responsible for many problems facing

women at work today had been cloaked over